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SARTOR  RESARTUS; 


LIFE  AND  OPINIONS 


HERR  TEUFELSDROCKH 


IN  THREE  BOOKS. 


BY  THOMAS  CARLYLE, 

AUTHOR  OF  TBS  "  FRENCH  REVOLUTION,"  "  PAST  AND  PRESENT,"  &C.  *C. 


Mein  Verm&chtniss,  wie  herrlich  weit  und  breit ! 

Die  Zeit  ist  mein  Vermachtniss,  mein  Acker  ist  die  Zeit. 


PROM  THE  LAST  LONDON  EDITION,  REVISED  AND  CORRECTED  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


JAMES 


BOSTON: 
MUNROE  AND  COMPANY 

1846. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK  L 

Page 

Chapter  I.  Preliminary  6 

II.  Editorial  Difficulties  7 

III.  Reminiscences  10 

IV.  Characteristics   .15 

V.  The  World  in  Clothes   .19 

VI.  Aprons  22 

VII.  Miscellaneous-historical  23 

VIII.  The  World  out  of  Clothes  25 

IX.  Adamitism  28 

X.  Pure  Reason  30 

XI.  Prospective  33 


BOOK  II. 

Chapter  I.  Genesis   38 

II.  Idyllic   42 

III.  Pedagogy    46 

IV.  Getting  under  Way   54 

V.  Romance   60 

VI.  Sorrows  of  Teufelsdrdckh   67 

VII.  The  everlasting  No   71 

VIII.  Centre  of  Indifference   75 

IX.  The  everlasting  Yea   81 

X.  Pause   87 


BOOK  III. 

Chapter  I.  Incident  in  Modern  History  92 

II.  Church  Clothes  94 

III.  Symbols  96 

IV.  Helotage  100 

V.  ThePhosnix  102 

VI.  Old  Clothes  105 

VII.  Organic  Filaments  107 

VIII.  Natural  Supernaturalism  112 

IX.  Circumspective      .      .      .      .      .      .      .  .117 

X.  The  Dandiacal  Body  119 

XI.  Tailors   .  126 

XII.  Farewell  127 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


BOOK  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PRELIMINARY. 

Considering  our  present  advanced  state  of  culture,  and  how  the  Torch 
of  Science  has  now  been  brandished  and  borne  about,  with  more  or  less 
effect,  for  five  thousand  years  and  upwards ;  how,  in  these  times  espe- 
cially, not  only  the  Torch  still  burns,  and  perhaps  more  fiercely  than 
ever,  but  innumerable  Rush-lights  and  Sulphur-matches,  kindled  there- 
at, are  also  glancing  in  every  direction,  so  that  not  the  smallest  cranny 
or  doghole  in  Nature  or  Art  can  remain  unilluminated, — it  might  strike 
the  reflective  mind  with  some  surprise  that  hitherto  little  or  nothing  of 
a  fundamental  character,  whether  in  the  way  of  Philosophy  or  History, 
has  been  written  on  the  subject  of  Clothes. 

Our  Theory  of  Gravitation  is  as  good  as  perfect:  Lagrange,  it  is  well 
known,  has  proved  that  the  Planetary  System,  on  this  scheme,  will  en- 
dure for  ever;  Laplace,  still  more  cunningly,  even  guesses  that  it  could 
not  have  been  made  on  any  other  scheme.  Whereby,  at  least,  our  nau- 
tical Logbooks  can  be  better  kept ;  and  water  transport  of  all  kinds  has 
grown  more  commodious.  Of  Geology  and  Geognosy  we  know  enough ; 
what  with  the  labors  of  our  Werners  and  Huttons,  what  with  the  ardent 
genius  of  their  disciples,  it  has  come  about  that  now,  to  many  a  Royal 
Society,  the  Creation  of  a  World  is  little  more  mysterious  than  the 
cooking  of  a  Dumpling;  concerning  which  last,  indeed,  there  have  been 
minds  to  whom  the  question,  How  the  Apples  were  got  in,  presented  difficul- 
ties. Why  mention  our  disquisitions  on  the  Social  Contract,  on  the 
Standard  of  Taste,  on  the  Migrations  of  the  Herring'?  Then,  have  we 
not  a  Doctrine  of  Rent;  a  Theory  of  Value;  Philosophies  of  Language, 
of  History,  of  Pottery,  of  Apparitions,  of  Intoxicating  Liquors  1  Man's 
whole  life  and  environment  have  been  laid  open  and  elucidated ;  scarcely 
a  fragment  or  fibre  of  his  Soul,  Body,  and  Possessions,  but  has  been 
probed,  dissected,  distilled,  desiccated,  and  scientifically  decomposed: 
our  spiritual  Faculties,  of  which  it  appears  there  are  not  a  few,  have 
their  Stewarts,  Cousins,  Royer  Collards:  every  cellular,  vascular,  mus- 
cular Tissue  glories  in  its  Lawrences,  Majendies,  Bichats. 

How,  then,  comes  it,  may  the  reflective  mind  repeat,  that  the  grand 
Tissue  of  all  Tissues,  the  only  real  Tissue  should  have  been  quite  over- 
looked by  Science, — the  vestural  Tissue,  namely,  of  woollen  or  other 
cloth ;  which  Man's  Soul  wears  as  its  outmost  wrappage  and  overall ; 
wherein  his  whole  other  Tissues  are  included  and  screened,  his  whole 
Faculties  work,  his  whole  Self  lives,  moves,  and  has  its  being  1  For  if, 


6 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


now  and  then,  some  straggling  broken-winged  thinker  has  cast  an  owl's 
glance  into  this  obscure  region,  the  most  have  soared  over  it  altogether 
heedless;  regarding  Clothes  as  a  property,  not  an  accident,  as  quite  na- 
tural and  spontaneous,  like  the  leaves  of  trees,  like  the  plumage  of  birds. 
In  all  speculations  they  have  tacitly  figured  man  as  a  Clothed  Animal; 
whereas  he  is  by  nature  a  Naked  Animal;  and  only  in  certain  circum- 
stances, by  purpose  and  device,  masks  himself  in  Clothes.  Shakspeare 
says,  we  are  creatures  that  look  before  and  after:  the  more  surprising 
that  we  do  not  look  round  a  little,  and  see  what  is  passing  under  our 
very  eyes. 

But  here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  Germany,  learned,  indefatigable, 
deep-thinking  Germany  comes  to  our  aid.  It  is,  after  all,  a  blessing 
that,  in  these  revolutionary  times,  there  should  be  one  country  where 
abstract  Thought  can  still  take  shelter ;  that  while  the  din  and  frenzy 
of  Catholic  Emancipations,  and  Rotten  Boroughs,  and  Revolts  of  Paris, 
deafen  every  French  and  every  English  ear,  the  German  can  stand 
peaceful  on  his  scientific  watch-tower ;  and,  to  the  raging,  struggling 
multitude  here  and  elsewhere,  solemnly,  from  hour  to  hour,  with  pre- 
paratory blast  of  cowhorn,  emit  his  Horet  ihr  Herren  und  lassefs  Euch 
sagen ;  in  other  words,  tell  the  Universe,  which  so  often  forgets  that 
fact,  what  o'clock  it  really  is.  Not  unfrequently  the  Germans  have  been 
blamed  for  an  unprofitable  diligence;  as  if  they  struck  into  devious 
courses,  where  nothing  was  to  be  had  but  the  toil  of  a  rough  journey ; 
as  if,  forsaking  the  gold  mines  of  Finance,  and  that  political  slaughter 
of  fat  oxen  whereby  a  man  himself  grows  fat,  they  were  apt  to  run 
goose-hunting  into  regions  of  bilberries  and  crowberries,  and  be  swal- 
lowed up  at  last  in  remote  peat-bogs.  Of  that  unwise  science,  which, 
as  our  Humorist  expresses  it, 

"  By  Geometric  scale, 
Doth  take  the  size  of  pots  of  ale," 

still  more,  of  that  altogether  misdirected  industry,  which  is  seen  vigor- 
ously enough  thrashing  mere  straw,  there  can  nothing  defensive  be  said. 
In  so  far  as  the  Germans  are  chargeable  with  such,  let  them  take  the 
consequence.  Nevertheless  be  it  remarked,  that  even  a  Russian  steppe 
has  tumuli  and  gold  ornaments ;  also  many  a  scene  that  looks  desert  and 
rock-bound  from  the  distance,  will  unfold  itself,  when  visited,  into  rare 
valleys.  Nay,  in  any  case,  would  Criticism  erect  not  only  finger-posts 
and  turnpikes,  but  spiked  gates  and  impassable  barriers,  for  the  mind 
of  man  1  It  is  written,  "  Many  shall  run  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge 
shall  be  increased."  Surely  the  plain  rule  is,  Let  each  considerate  per- 
son have  his  way,  and  see  what  it  will  lead  to.  For  not  this  man  and 
that  man,  but  all  men  make  up  mankind,  and  their  united  tasks  the  task 
of  mankind.  How  often  have  we  seen  some  such  adventurous,  and 
perhaps  much-censured  wanderer  light  on  some  outlying,  neglected,  yet 
vitally  momentous  province;  the  hidden  treasures  of  which  he  first  dis- 
covered, and  kept  proclaiming  till  the  general  eye  and  effort  were  di- 
rected thither,  and  the  conquest  was  completed ; — thereby,  in  these  his 
seemingly  so  aimless  rambles,  planting  new  standards,  founding  new 
habitable  colonies,  in  the  immeasurable  circumambient  realm  of  Noth- 
ingness and  Night  1  "Wise  man  was  he  who  counselled  that  Specula- 
tion should  have  free  course,  and  look  fearlessly  towards  all  the  thirty- 
two  points  of  the  compass,  whithersoever  and  howsoever  it  listed. 

Perhaps  it  is  proof  of  the  stinted  condition  in  which  pure  Science, 
especially  pure  moral  Science,  languishes  among  us  English ;  and  how 
our  mercantile  greatness,  and  invaluable  Constitution,  impressing  a  po- 


PRELIMINARY. 


7 


litical  or  other  immediately  practical  tendency  on  all  English  culture  and 
endeavor,  cramps  the  free  flight  of  Thought, — that  this,  not  Philosophy 
of  Clothes,  but  recognition  even  that  we  have  no  such  Philosophy,  stands 
here  for  the  first  time  published  in  our  language.  What  English  intel- 
lect could  have  chosen  such  a  topic,  or  by  chance  stumbled  on  it  1  But 
for  that  same  unshackled,  and  even  sequestered  condition  of  the  German 
Learned,  which  permits  and  induces  them  to  fish  in  all  manner  of 
waters,  with  all  manner  of  nets,  it  seems  probable  enough,  this  abstruse 
Inquiry  might,  in  spite  of  the  results  it  leads  to,  have  continued  dormant 
for  indefinite  periods.  The  Editor  of  these  sheets,  though  otherwise 
boasting  himself  a  man  of  confirmed  speculative  habits,  and  perhaps 
discursive  enough,  is  free  to  confess,  that  never,  till  these  last  months, 
did  the  above  very  plain  considerations,  on  our  total  want  of  a  Philoso- 
phy of  Clothes,  occur  to  him ;  and  then,  by  quite  foreign  suggestion.  By 
the  arrival,  namely,  of  a  new  Book  from  Professor  Teufelsdrockh  of 
Weissnichtwo ;  treating  expressly  of  this  subject ;  and  in  a  style  which, 
whether  understood  or  not,  could  not  even  by  the  blindest  be  overlooked. 
In  the  present  Editor's  way  of  thought,  this  remarkable  Treatise,  with 
its  Doctrines,  whether  as  judicially  acceded  to,  or  judicially  denied,  has 
not  remained  without  effect. 

"  Die  Kl,eider,  ihr  Werden  und  Wirken  (Clothes,  their  Origin  and  In- 
fluence) :  von  Diog  Teufelsdrockh,  J.  U.  D.  etc.  Stillschweigen  und 
Cognie.    Weissnichtwo,  1831: 

"Here,"  says  the  Weissnichtwo' sche  Anzeiger,  " comes  a  Volume  of 
that  extensive,  close-printed,  close-meditated  sort,  which,  be  it  spoken 
with  pride,  is  seen  only  in  Germany,  perhaps  only  in  Weissnichtwo. 
Issuing  from  the  hitherto  irreproachable  Firm  of  Stillschweigen  and 
Company,  with  every  external  furtherance,  it  is  of  such  internal  quality 
as  to  set  Neglect  at  defiance."  *  *  •  *  «  a  work,"  concludes  the 
well  nigh  enthusiastic  Reviewer,  "  interesting  alike  to  the  antiquary,  the 
historian,  and  the  philosophic  thinker ;  a  master-piece  of  boldness,  lynx- 
eyed  acuteness,  and  rugged  independent  Germanism  and  Philanthropy 
(derben  Kerndeutschheit  und  Menschenliebe) ;  which  will  not,  assuredly, 
pass  current  without  opposition  in  high  places ;  but  must  and  will  exalt 
the  almost  new  name  of  Teufelsdrockh  to  the  first  ranks  of  Philosophy, 
in  our  German  Temple  of  Honor." 

Mindful  of  old  friendship,  the  distinguished  Professor,  in  this  the  first 
blaze  of  his  fame,  which  however  does  not  dazzle  him,  sends  hither  a 
Presentation  Copy  of  his  Book;  with  compliments  and  encomiums 
which  modesty  forbids  the  present  Editor  to  rehearse  ;  yet  without  indi- 
cated wish  or  hope  of  any  kind,  except  what  may  be  implied  in  the  con- 
cluding phrase :  Mbchte  es  (this  remarkable  Treatise)  auch  im  Brittischen 
Boden  gedeihen  ? 


CHAPTER  II. 

EDITORIAL  DIFFICULTIES. 

If  for  a  speculative  man,  "whose  seedfield,"  in  the  sublime  words  of 
the  Poet,  "  is  Time,"  no  conquest  is  important  but  that  of  new  Ideas, 
then  might  the  arrival  of  Professor  Teufelsdrockh's  Book  be  marked 
with  chalk  in  the  Editor's  Calendar.  It  is  indeed  an  "  extensive  Vol- 
ume," of  boundless,  almost  formless  contents,  a  very  Sea  of  Thought ; 
neither  calm  nor  clear,  if  you  will;  yet  wherein  the  toughest  pearl-diver 
may  dive  to  his  utmost  depth,  and  return  not  only  with  sea- wreck  but 
with  true  orients. 

Directly  on  the  first  perusal,  almost  on  the  first  deliberate  inspection, 


8 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


it  became  apparent  that  here  a  quite  new  Branch  of  Philosophy,  leading 
to  as  yet  undescried  ulterior  results,  was  disclosed ;  farther,  what  seemed 
scarcely  less  interesting,  a  quite  new  human  Individuality,  an  almost 
unexampled  personal  character,  that,  namely,  of  Professor  Teufelsdrockh 
the  Discloser.  Of  both  which  novelties,  as  far  as  might  be  possible,  we 
resolved  to  master  the  significance.  But  as  man  is  emphatically  a  Pro- 
selytising creature,  no  sooner  was  such  mastery  even  fairly  attempted, 
than  the  new  question  arose :  How  might  this  acquired  good  be  impart- 
ed to  others,  perhaps  in  equal  need  thereof;  how  could  the  Philosophy 
of  Clothes  and  the  Author  of  such  Philosophy  be  brought  home,  in  any 
measure,  to  the  business  and  bosoms  of  our  own  English  nation?  For 
if  new-got  gold  is  said  to  burn  the  pockets  till  it  be  cast  forth  into  circu- 
lation, much  more  may  new  Truth. 

Here,  however,  difficulties  occurred.  The  first  thought  naturally  was 
to  publish  Article  after  Article  on  this  remarkable  Volume,  in  such 
widely-circulating  Critical  Journals  as  the  Editor  might  stand  connected 
with,  or  by  money  or  love  procure  access  to.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  it  not  clear  that  such  matter  as  must  here  be  revealed  and  treated 
of  might  endanger  the  circulation  of  any  Journal  extant  %  If,  indeed, 
the  whole  parties  of  the  State  could  have  been  abolished,  Whig,  Tory, 
and  Radical,  embracing  in  discrepant  union ;  and  the  whole  Journals 
of  the  Nation  could  have  been  jumbled  into  one  Journal,  and  the  Philo- 
sophy of  Clothes  poured  forth  in  incessant  torrents  therefrom,  the 
attempt  had  seemed  possible.  But,  alas,  what  vehicle  of  that  sort  have 
we,  except  Frazer's  Magazine  ?  A  vehicle  all  strewed  (figuratively 
speaking)  with  the  maddest  Waterloo-Crackers,  exploding  distractively 
and  destructively,  wheresoever  the  mystified  passenger  stands  or  sits ; 
nay,  in  any  case,  understood  to  be,  of  late  years,  a  vehicle  full  to  over- 
flowing, and  inexorably  shut !  Besides,  to  state  the  Philosophy  of 
Clothes  without  the  Philosopher,  the  ideas  of  Teufelsdrockh  without 
something  of  his  personality,  was  it  not  to  insure  both  of  entire  misap- 
prehension'? Now  for  Biography,  had  it  been  otherwise  admissible, 
there  were  no  adequate  documents,  no  hope  of  obtaining  such,  but  rather 
owing  to  circumstances,  a  special  despair.  Thus  did  the  Editor  see  him- 
self, for  the  while,  shut  out  from  all  public  utterance  of  these  extraordi- 
nary Doctrines,  and  constrained  to  revolve  them,  not  without  disquietude, 
in  the  dark  depths  of  his  own  mind. 

So  had  it  lasted  for  some  months ;  and  now  the  Volume  on  Clothes, 
read  and  again  read,  was  in  several  points  becoming  lucid  and  lucent ; 
the  personality  of  its  Author  more  and  more  surprising,  but,  in  spite  of 
all  that  memory  and  conjecture  could  do,  more  and  more  enigmatic ; 
whereby  the  old  disquietude  seemed  fast  settling  into  fixed  discontent, 
— when  altogether  unexpectedly  arrives  a  Letter  from  Herr  Hofrath 
Heuschrecke,  our  Professor's  chief  friend  and  associate  in  Weissnich- 
two,  with  whom  we  had  not  previously  corresponded.  The  Hofrath, 
after  much  quite  extraneous  matter,  began  dilating  largely  on  the  "  agi- 
tation and  attention"  which  the  Philosophy  of  Clothes  was  exciting  in 
its  own  German  Republic  of  Letters ;  on  the  deep  significance  and  ten- 
dency of  his  Friend's  Volume;  and  then,  at  length,  with  great  circum- 
locution, hinted  at  the  practicability  of  conveying  "some  knowledge  of 
it,  and  of  him,  to  England,  and  through  England  to  the  distant  West :" 
a  Work  on  Professor  Teufelsdrockh  "were  undoubtedly  welcome  to 
the  Family,  the  National,  or  any  other  of  those  patriotic  Libraries,  at 
present  the  glory  of  British  Literature;"  might  work  revolutions  in 
Thought;  and  so  forth ;— in  conclusion,  intimating  not  obscurely,  that 
should  the  present  Editor  feel  disposed  to  undertake  a  Biography  of 
Teufelsdrockh,  he,  Hofrath  Heuschrecke,  had  it  in  his  power  to  furnish 
the  requisite  Documents. 

/ 


EDITORIAL  DIFFICULTIES. 


9 


As  in  some  chemical  mixture,  that  has  stood  long  evaporating,  but 
would  not  crystallise,  instantly  when  the  wire  or  other  fixed  substance 
is  introduced,  crystallisation  commences,  and  rapidly  proceeds  till  the 
whole  is  finished,  so  was  it  with  the  Editor's  mind  and  this  offer  of 
Heuschrecke's.  Form  rose  out  of  void  solution  and  discontinuity ;  like 
united  itself  with  like  in  definite  arrangement :  and  soon  either  in  actual 
vision  and  possession,  or  in  fixed  reasonable  hope,  the  image  of  the  whole 
Enterprise  had  shaped  itself,  so  to  speak,  into  a  solid  mass.  Cautiously 
yet  courageously,  through  the  twopenny  post,  application  to  the  famed  re- 
doubtable Oliver  Yorke  was  now  made :  an  interview,  interviews  with 
that  singular  man  have  taken  place;  with  more  of  assurance  on  our  side, 
with  less  of  satire  (at  least  of  open  satire)  on  his,  than  we  anticipated  j 
— for  the  rest,  with  such  issue  as  is  now  visible.  As  to  those  same  "pa- 
triotic Libraries"  the  Hofrath's  counsel  could  only  be  viewed  with 
silent  amazement ;  but  with  his  offer  of  Documents  we  joyfully  and  al- 
most instantaneously  closed.  Thus,  too,  in  the  sure  expectation  of  these, 
we  already  see  our  task  begun ;  and  this  our  Sartor  Resartus,  which  is 
properly  a  "  Life  and  Opinions  of  Herr  Teufelsdrockh,"  hourly  ad- 
vancing. 

Of  our  fitness  for  the  Enterprise,  to  which  we  have  such  title  and  avo- 
cation, it  were  perhaps  uninteresting  to  say  more.  Let  the  British  reader 
study  and  enjoy,  in  simplicity  of  heart,  what  is  here  presented  him,  and 
with  whatever  metaphysical  acumen  and  talent  for  Meditation  he  is 
possessed  of.  Let  him  strive  to  keep  a  free,  open  sense ;  cleared  from 
l  he  mists  of  Prejudice,  above  all  from  the  paralysis  of  Cant ;  and  direct- 
ed rather  to  the  Book  itself  than  to  the  Editor  of  the  Book.  Who  or 
what  such  Editor  may  be,  must  remain  conjectural,  and  even  insignifi- 
cant :*  it  is  a  Voice  publishing  tidings  of  the  Philosophy  of  Clothes ;  un- 
doubtedly a  Spirit  addressing  Spirits :  whoso  hath  ears  let  him  hear. 

On  one  other  point  the  Editor  thinks  it  needful  to  give  warning: 
namely,  that  he  is  animated  with  a  true  though  perhaps  a  feeble  at- 
tachment to  the  Institutions  of  our  Ancestors ;  and  minded  to  defend 
these,  according  to  ability,  at  all  hazards ;  nay,  it  was  partly  with  a  view 
to  such  defence  that  he  engaged  in  this  undertaking.  To  stem,  or  if 
that  be  impossible,  profitably  to  divert  the  current  of  Innovation,  such  a 
Volume  as  Teufelsdrockh's,  if  cunningly  planted  down,  were  no  despi- 
cable pile,  or  floodgate,  in  the  Logical  wear. 

For  the  rest,  be  it  nowise  apprehended,  that  any  personal  connection 
of  ours  with  Teufelsdrockh,  Heuschrecke,  or  this  Philosophy  of  Clothes, 
can  pervert  our  judgment,  or  sway  us  to  extenuate  or  exaggerate.  Pow- 
erless, we  venture  to  promise,  are  those  private  Compliments  themselves. 
Grateful  they  may  well  be ;  as  generous  illusions  of  friendship ;  as  fair 
mementos  of  bygone  unions,  of  those  nights  and  suppers  of  the  gods, 
when  lapped  in  the  symphonies  and  harmonies  of  Philosophic  Eloquence, 
though  with  baser  accompaniments,  the  present  Editor  revelled  in  that 
feast  of  reason,  never  since  vouchsafed  him  in  so  full  measure!  But 
what  then1?  Amicus  Plato,  magis  arnica  Veritas;  Teufelsdrockh  is  our 
friend,  Truth  is  our  divinity.  In  our  historical  and  critical  capacity, 
we  hope,  we  are  strangers  to  all  the  world ;  have  feud  or  favor  with  no 
one,— save  indeed  the  Devil,  with  whom  as  with  the  Prince  of  Lies  and 
Darkness  we  do  at  all  times  wage  internecine  war.  This  assurance,  at 
an  epoch  when  Puffery  and  duackery  have  reached  a  height  unexam- 
pled in  the  annals  of  mankind,  and  even  English  Editors,  like  Chinese 
Shopkeepers,  must  write  on  their  door-lintels,  No  cheating  here, — we 
thought  it  good  to  premise. 


*  With  us  even  he  still  communicates  in  some  sort  of  mask,  or  muffler ;  and,  we 
have  reason  to  think,  under  a  feigned  name  !— O.  Y. 


10 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


CHAPTER  III. 

REMINISCENCES. 

To  the  Author's  private  circle  the  appearance  of  this  singular  Work 
on  Clothes  must  have  occasioned  little  less  surprise  than  it  has  to  the 
rest  of  the  world.  For  ourselves,  at  least,  few  things  have  been  more 
unexpected.  Professor  Teufelsdrockh,  at  the  period  of  our  acquaint- 
ance with  him,  seemed  to  lead  a  quite  still  and  self-contained  life :  a  man 
devoted  to  the  higher  Philosophies,  indeed :  yet  more  likely,  if  he  pub- 
lished at  all,  to  publish  a  Refutation  of  Hegel  and  Bardili,  both  of  whom, 
strangely  enough,  he  included  under  a  common  ban ;  than  to  descend, 
as  he  has  here  done,  into  the  angry  noisy  Forum,  with  an  Argument 
that  cannot  but  exasperate  and  divide.  Not,  that  we  can  remember,  was 
the  Philosophy  of  Clothes  once  touched  upon  between  us.  If  through 
the  high,  silent,  meditative  Transcendentalism  of  our  Friend  we  detect- 
ed any  practical  tendency  whatever,  it  was  at  most  Political,  and  to- 
wards a  certain  prospective,  and  for  the  present  quite  speculative,  Radi- 
calism ;  as  indeed  some  correspondence,  on  his  part,  with  Herr  Oken  of 
Jena  was  now  and  then  suspected ;  though  his  special  contributions  to 
the  Isis  could  never  be  more  than  surmised  at.  But,  at  all  events,  nothing 
Moral,  still  less  anything  Didactico-Religious,  was  looked  for  from  him. 

Well  do  we  recollect  the  last  words  he  spoke  in  our  hearing ;  which 
indeed,  with  the  Night  they  were  utttered  in,  are  to  be  for  ever  remem- 
bered. Lifting  his  huge  tumbler  of  Gukguk*  and  for  a  moment  lower- 
ing his  tobacco-pipe,  he  stood  up  in  full  coffee-house  (it  was  Zum  Grunen 
Ganse,  the  largest  in  Weissnichtwo,  where  all  the  Virtuosity  and  nearly 
all  the  Intellect  of  the  place  assembled  of  an  evening)  ;  and  there,  with 
low,  soul-stirring  tone,  and  the  look  truly  of  an  angel,  though  whether 
of  a  white  or  of  a  black  one  might  be  dubious,  proposed  this  toast :  Die 
Sache  der  Armen  in  Gottes  u?id  Teufels  Namen  (The  Cause  of  the  Poor 

in  Heaven's  name  and  's)  !    One  full  shout,  breaking  the  leaden 

silence ;  then  a  gurgle  of  innumerable  emptying  bumpers,  again  follow- 
ed by  universal  cheering,  returned  hirn  loud  acclaim.  It  was  the  finale 
of  the  night :  resuming  their  pipes ;  in  the  highest  enthusiasm,  amid  vo- 
lumes of  tobacco-smoke ;  triumphant,  cloudcapt  without  and  within,  the 
assembly  broke  up,  each  to  his  thoughtful  pillow.  Bleibt  dock  ein  echter 
Spass-und  Galgen-vogel,  said  several ;  meaning  thereby  that,  one  day, 
he  would  probably  be  hanged  for  his  democratic  sentiments.  Wo  steckt 
der  Schalk?  added  they,  looking  round:  but  Teufelsdrockh  had  retired 
by  private  alleys,  and  the  Compiler  of  these  pages  beheld  him  no  more. 

In  such  scenes  has  it  been  our  lot  to  live  with  this  Philosopher,  such 
estimate  to  form  of  his  purposes  and  powers.  And  yet,  thou  brave  Teu- 
felsdrockh, who  could  tell  what  lurked  in  thee  1  Under  those  thick 
locks  of  thine,  so  long  and  lank,  overlapping  roof-wise  the  gravest  face 
we  ever  in  this  world  saw,  there  dwelt  a  most  busy  brain.  In  thy  eyes, 
too,  deep  under  their  shaggy  brows,  and  looking  out  so  still  and  dreamy, 
have  we  not  noticed  gleams  of  an  ethereal  or  else  a  diabolic  fire,  and 
half  fancied  that  their  stillness  was  but  the  rest  of  infinite  motion,  the 
sleep  of  a  spinning  top*?  Thy  little  figure,  there  as  in  loose,  ill-brushed, 
threadbare  habiliments,  thou  sattest,  amid  litter  and  lumber,  whole  days, 
to  "  think  and  smoke  tobacco,"  held  in  it  a  mighty  heart.  The  secrets 
of  man's  Life  were  laid  open  to  thee ;  thou  sawest  into  the  mystery  of 
the  Universe,  farther  than  another  ;  thou  hadst  in  petto  thy  remarkable 
Volume  on  Clothes.   Nay,  was  there  not  in  that  clear  logically-founded 


*  Gukguk  is  unhappily  only  an  academical— beer. 


REMINISCENCES. 


11 


Transcendentalism  of  thine ;  still  more,  in  thy  meek,  silent,  deep-seated 
Sansculottism,  combined  with  a  true  princely  Courtesy  of  inward  na- 
ture, the  visible  rudiments  of  such  speculation  1  But  great  men  are  too 
often  unknown,  or  what  is  worse,  misknown.  Already,  when  we 
dreamed  not  of  it,  the  warp  of  thy  remarkable  Volume  lay  on  the  loom ; 
and,  silently,  mysterious  shuttles  were  putting  in  the  woof! 

How  the  Hofrath  Heuschrecke  is  to  furnish  biographical  data,  in  this 
case,  may  be  a  curious  question ;  the  answer  of  which,  however,  is  hap- 
pily not  our  concern,  but  his.  To  us  it  appeared,  after  repeated  trial, 
that,  in  Weissnichtwo,  from  the  archives  or  memories  of  the  best-in- 
formed classes,  no  Biography  of  Teufelsdrockh  was  to  be  gathered; 
not  so  much  as  a  false  one.  He  was  a  Stranger  there,  wafted  thither 
by  what  is  called  the  course  of  circumstances ;  concerning  whose  pa- 
rentage, birth-place,  prospects,  or  pursuits,  Curiosity  had  indeed  made 
inquiries,  but  satisfied  herself  with  the  most  indistinct  replies.  For  him- 
self, he  was  a  man  so  still  and  altogether  unparticipating,  that  to  ques- 
tion him  even  afar  off*  on  such  particulars  was  a  thing  of  more  than 
usual  delicacy:  besides,  in  his  sly  way,  he  had  ever  some  quaint  turn, 
not  without  its  satirical  edge,  wherewith  to  divert  such  intrusions,  and 
deter  you  from  the  like.  Wits  spoke  of  him  secretly  as  if  he  were  a 
kind  of  Melchizedek,  without  father  or  mother  of  any  kind ;  sometimes, 
with  reference  to  his  great  historic  and  statistic  knowledge,  and  the 
vivid  way  he  had  of  expressing  himself  like  an  eye-witness  of  distant 
transactions  and  scenes,  they  called  him  the  Ewige  Jude,  Everlasting, 
or  as  we  say,  Wandering  Jew. 

To  the  most,  indeed,  he  had  become  not  so  much  a  Man  as  a  Thing; 
which  thing  doubtless  they  were  accustomed  to  see,  and  with  satisfac- 
tion ;  but  no  more  thought  of  accounting  for  than  for  the  fabrication  of 
their  daily  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  or  the  domestic  habits  of  the  Sun.  Both 
were  there  and  welcome ;  the  world  enjoyed  what  good  was  in  them, 
and  thought  no  more  of  the  matter.  The  man  Teufelsdrockh  passed 
and  repassed,  in  his  little  circle,  as  one  of  those  originals  and  nonde- 
scripts, more  frequent  in  German  Universities  than  elsewhere ;  of  whom, 
though  you  see  them  alive,  and  feel  certain  enough  that  they  must  have 
a  History,  no  History  seems  to  be  discoverable ;  or  only  such  as  men 
give  of  mountain  rocks  and  antediluvian  ruins :  That  they  have  been 
created  by  unknown  agencies,  are  in  a  state  of  gradual  decay,  and  for 
the  present  reflect  light  and  resist  pressure ;  that  is,  are  visible  and  tan- 
gible objects  in  this  phantasm  world,  where  so  much  other  mystery  is. 

It  was  to  be  remarked  that  though,  by  title  and  diploma,  Professor  der 
Allerley-Wissenschaft,  or  as  we  should  say  in  English,  "Professor  of 
Things  in  General,"  he  had  never  delivered  any  Course  ;  perhaps  never 
been  incited  thereto  by  any  public  furtherance  or  requisition.  To  all 
appearance,  the  enlightened  Government  of  Weissnichtwo,  in  founding 
their  New  University,  imagined  they  had  done  enough,  if  "in  times  like 
ours,"  as  the  half-official  Program  expressed  it,  "  when  all  things  are, 
rapidly  or  slowly,  resolving  themselves  into  Chaos,  a  Professorship  of 
this  kind  had  been  established ;  whereby,  as  occasion  called,  the  task  of 
bodying  somewhat  forth  again  from  such  Chaos  might  be,  even  slightly, 
"  facilitated."  That  actual  Lectures  should  be  held,  and  Public  Classes 
for  the  "  Science  of  Things  in  General,"  they  doubtless  considered  pre- 
mature ;  on  which  ground  too  they  had  only  established  the  Professor- 
ship, nowise  endowed  it ;  so  that  Teufelsdrockh,  "  recommended  by  the 
highest  names,"  had  been  promoted  thereby  to  a  Name  merely. 

Great,  among  the  more  enlightened  classes,  was  the  admiration  of  this 
new  Professorship :  how  an  enlightened  Government  has  seen  into  the 
Want  of  the  Age  (Zeitbedurfniss) ;  how  at  length,  instead  of  Denial 
and  Destruction,  we  were  to  have  a  science  of  Affirmation  and  Recon- 


J2 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


struction ;  and  Germany  and  Weissnichtwo  were  where  they  should  be, 
in  the  vanguard  of  the  world.  Considerable  also  was  the  wonder  at 
the  new  Professor,  dropt  opportunely  enough  into  the  nascent  University  ; 
so  able  to  lecture,  should  occasion  call ;  so  ready  to  hold  his  peace  for 
indefinite  periods,  should  an  enlightened  Government  consider  that  oc- 
casion did  not  call.  But  such  admiration  and  such  wonder,  being  fol- 
lowed by  no  act  to  keep  them  living,  could  last  only  nine  days;  and, 
long  before  our  visit  to  that  scene,  had  quite  died  away.  The  more 
cunning  heads  thought  it  was  all  an  expiring  clutch  at  popularity,  on 
the  part  of  a  Minister,  whom  domestic  embarrassments,  court  intrigues, 
old  age,  and  dropsy  soon  afterwards  finally  drove  from  the  helm. 

As  for  Teufelsdrdckh,  except  by  his  nightly  appearances  at  the  Grn- 
nen  Ganse,  Weissnichtwo  saw  little  of  him,  felt  little  of  him.  Here, 
over  his  tumbler  of  Gukguk,  he  sat  reading  Journals ;  sometimes  con- 
templatively looking  into  the  clouds  of  his  tobacco-pipe,  without  other 
visible  employment :  always,  from  his  mild  ways,  an  agreeable  pheno- 
menon there  ;  more  especially  when  he  opened  his  lips  for  speech  ;  on 
which  occasions  the  whole  Coffee-house  would  hush  itself  into  silence, 
as  if  sure  to  hear  something  noteworthy.  Nay,  perhaps  to  hear  a  whole 
series  and  river  of  the  most  memorable  utterances ;  such  as,  when  once 
thawed,  he  would  for  hours  indulge  in,  with  fit  audience :  and  the  more 
memorable,  as  issuing  from  a  head  apparently  not  more  interested  in 
them,  not  more  conscious  of  them,  than  is  the  sculptured  stone  head  of 
some  public  Fountain,  which  through  its  brass  mouth-tube  emits  water 
to  the  worthy  and  the  unworthy;  careless  whether  it  be  for  cooking 
victuals  or  quenching  conflagrations ;  indeed,  maintains  the  same  ear- 
nest assiduous  look,  whether  any  water  be  flowing  or  not. 

To  the  editor  of  these  sheets,  as  to  a  young  enthusiastic  Englishman, 
however  unworthy,  Teufelsdrdckh  opened  himself  perhaps  more  than  to 
the  most.  Pity  only  that  we  could  not  then  half  guess  his  importance, 
and  scrutinise  him  with  due  power  of  vision  !  We  enjoyed,  what  not 
three  men  in  Weissnichtwo  could  boast  of,  a  certain  degree  of  access  to 
the  Professor's  private  domicile.  It  was  the  attic  floor  of  the  highest 
house  in  the  Wahngasse ;  and  might  truly  be  called  the  pinnacle  of 
Weissnichtwo,  for  it  rose  sheer  above  the  contiguous  roofs,  themselves 
rising  from  elevated  ground.  Moreover,  with  its  windows,  it  looked 
towards  all  the  four  Orte,  or  as  the  Scotch  say,  and  we  ought  to  say, 
Airts :  the  Sitting-room  itself  commanded  three  ;  another  came  to  view 
in  the  Schlafgemack  (Bed-room)  at  the  opposite  end  ;  to  say  nothing  of 
the  Kitchen,  which  offered  two,  as  it  were,  duplicates,  and  showing  nothing 
new.  So  that  it  was  in  fact  the  speculum  or  watch-tower  of  Teufels- 
drdckh ;  wherefrom,  sitting  at  ease,  he  might  see  the  whole  life-circula- 
tion of  that  considerable  City ;  the  streets  and  lanes  of  which,  with 
all  their  doing  and  driving  (  Thun  und  Treiben),  were  for  the  most  part 
visible  there. 

"  I  look  down  into  all  that  wasp-nest  or  bee-hive,"  have  we  heard  him 
say,  "and  witness  their  wax-laying  and  honey-making,  and  poison- 
brewing,  and  choking  by  sulphur.  From  the  Palace  esplanade,  where 
music  plays  while  Serene  Highness  is  pleased  to  eat  his  victuals,  down 
the  low  lane,  where  in  her  door-sill  the  aged  widow,  knitting  for  a  thin 
livelihood,  sits  to  feel  the  afternoon  sun,  I  see  it  all ;  for,  except  the 
Schlosskirche  weathercock,  no  biped  stands  so  high.  Couriers  arrive 
bestrapped  and  bebooted,  bearing  Joy  and  Sorrow  bagged  up  in  pouches 
of  leather:  there,  topladen,  and  with  four  swift  horses,  rolls  in  the 
country  Baron  and  his  household ;  here,  on  timber  leg,  the  lamed  Sol- 
dier hops  painfully  along,  begging  alms :  a  thousand  carriages,  and 
wains,  and  cars,  come  tumbling  in  with  Food,  with  young  Rusticity, 
and  other  Raw  Produce,  inanimate  or  animate,  and  go  tumbling  out 


REMINISCENCES. 


again  with  Produce  manufactured.  That  living  flood,  pouring  through 
these  streets,  of  all  qualities  and  ages,  knowest  thou  whence  it  is  com- 
ing, whither  it  is  going  1  Aus,  der  Ewigkeit,  zu  der  Ewigkeit  hin : 
From  Eternity  onwards  to  Eternity  !  These  are  Apparitions  :  what  else! 
Are  they  not  Souls  rendered  visible :  in  Bodies,  that  took  shape  and  will 
lose  it ;  melting  into  air  %  Their  solid  pavement  is  a  Picture  of  the 
Sense  ;  they  walk  on  the  bosom  of  Nothing,  blank  Time  is  behind  them 
and  before  them.  Or  fanciest  thou,  the  red  and  yellow  Clothes-screen 
yonder,  with  spurs  on  its  heels,  and  feather  in  its  crown,  is  but  of  To- 
day, without  a  Yesterday  or  a  To-morrow ;  and  had  not  rather  its 
Ancestor  alive  when  Hengist  and  Horsa  overran  thy  Island  1  Friend, 
thou  seest  here  a  living  link  in  that  Tissue  of  History,  which  inweaves 
all  Being  :  watch  well,  or  it  will  be  past  thee,  and  seen  no  more." 

"  Ach,  mein  Lieberl"  said  he  once,  at  midnight,  when  we  had  return- 
ed from  the  Coffee-house  in  rather  earnest  talk,  "it  is  a  true  sublimity 
to  dwell  here.  These  fringes  of  lamplight,  struggling  up  through  smoke 
and  thousand-fold  exhalation,  some  fathoms  into  the  ancient  reign  of 
Night,  what  thinks  Bootes  of  them,  as  he  leads  his  hunting  dogs  over 
the  Zenith  in  their  leash  of  sidereal  fire  1  That  stifled  hum  of  Midnight,  I 
when  Traffic  has  lain  down  to  rest ;  and  the  chariot- wheels  of  Vanity, 
still  rolling  here  and  there  through  distant  streets,  are  bearing  her  to 
Halls  roofed  in,  and  lighted  to  the  due  pitch  for  her ;  and  only  Vice  and 
Misery,  to  prowl  or  to  moan  like  nightbirds,  are  abroad :  that  hum,  I 
say,  like  the  stertorous,  unquiet  slumber  of  sick  Life,  is  heard  in  Hea- 
ven !  Oh,  under  that  hideous  coverlet  of  vapors,  and  putrefactions,  and 
unimaginable  gases,  what  a  Fermenting- vat  lies  simmering  and  hid ! 
The  joyful  and  the  sorrowful  are  there ;  men  are  dying  there,  men  are 
being  born;  men  are  praying, — on  the  other  side  of  a  brick  partition, 
men  are  cursing ;  and  around  them  all  is  the  vast,  void  Night.  The 
proud  Grandee  still  lingers  in  his  perfumed  saloons,  or  reposes  within 
damask  curtains ;  Wretchedness  cowers  into  truckle-beds,  or  shivers 
hunger-stricken  into  his  lair  of  straw  :  in  obscure  cellars,  Rouge-et-Noir 
languidly  emits  its  voice-of-destiny  to  haggard  hungry  Villains;  while 
Councillors  of  State  sit  plotting,  and  playing  their  high-chess  game, 
whereof  the  pawns  are  Men.  The  Lover  whispers  his  mistress  that  the 
coach  is  ready;  and  she,  full  of  hope  and  fear,  glides  down,  to  fly  with 
him  over  the  borders ;  the  Thief,  still  more  silently,  sets-to  his  picklocks 
and  crowbars,  or  lurks  in  wait  till  the  watchmen  first  snore  in  their 
boxes.  Gay  mansions,  with  supper-rooms  and  dancing-rooms,  are  full 
of  light  and  music  and  high-swelling  hearts ;  but,  in  the  Condemned 
Cells,  the  pulse  of  life  beats  tremulous  and  faint,  and  bloodshot  eyes 
look  out  through  the  darkness,  which  is  around  and  within,  for  the  light 
of  a  stern  last  morning.  Six  men  are  to  be  hanged  on  the  morrow : 
comes  no  hammering  from  the  Rabenstein  ? — their  gallows  must  even 
now  be  o'  building.  Upwards  of  five  hundred  thousand  two-legged 
animals  without  feathers  lie  round  us,  in  horizontal  position  ;  their  heads 
all  in  nightcaps,  and  full  of  the  foolishest  dreams.  Riot  cries  aloud, 
and  staggers  and  swaggers  in  his  rank  dens  of  shame ;  and  the  Mother, 
with  streaming  hair,  kneels  over  her  pallid  dying  infant,  whose  cracked 
lips  only  her  tears  now  moisten.  All  these  heaped  and  huddled  toge- 
ther, with  nothing  but  a  little  carpentry  and  masonry  between  them ; —  I 
crammed  in,  like  salted  fish,  in  their  barrel ;— or  weltering,  shall  I  say,  J 
like  an  Egyptian  pitcher  of  tamed  Vipers,  each  struggling  to  get  its  head  | 
above  the  others:  such  work  goes  on  under  that  smoke-counterpane ! — " 
but  I,  mein  Werther,  sit  above  it  all ;  I  am  alone  with  the  Stars." 

We  looked  in  his  face  to  see  whether,  in  the  utterance  of  such  extra- 
ordinary Night-thoughts,  no  feeling  might  be  traced  there ;  but  with  the 
light  we  had,  which  indeed  was  only  a  single  tallow-light,  and  far 


14 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


enough  from  the  window,  nothing  save  that  old  calmness  and  lixeclnesr 
was  visible. 

These  were  the  Professor's  talking  seasons :  most  commonly  he  spoke 
in  mere  monosyllables,  or  sat  altogether  silent,  and  smoked  ;  while  the 
visitor  had  liberty  either  to  say  what  he  listed,  receiving  for  answer  an 
occasional  grunt;  or  to  look  round  for  a  space,  and  then  take  himself 
away.  It  was  a  strange  apartment ;  full  of  books  and  tattered  paper*, 
and  miscellaneous  shreds  of  all  conceivable  substances,  "  united  in  a 
common  element  of  dust."  Books  lay  on  tables,  and  below  tables  ;  here 
fluttered  a  sheet  of  manuscript,  there  a  torn  handkerchief,  or  nightcap 
hastily  thrown  aside :  ink-bottles  alternated  with  bread-crusts,  coffee-pots, 
tobacco-boxes,  Periodical  Literature,  and  Blucher  Boots.  Old  Leischen 
(Lisekin,  'Liza),  who  was  his  bed-maker  and  stove-lighter,  his  washer 
and  wringer,  cook,  errand-maid,  and  general  lion's-provider,  and  for  the 
rest  a  very  orderly  creature,  had  no  sovereign  authority  in  this  last  cita- 
del of  Teufelsdrockh  ;  only  some  once  in  the  month,  she  half-forcibly 
made  her  way  thither,  with  broom  and  duster,  and  (Teufelsdrockh 
hastily  saving  his  manuscripts)  effected  a  partial  clearance,  a  jail-deli- 
very of  such  lumber  as  was  not  Literary.  These  were  her  Erdbebun- 
gen  (Earthquakes),  which  Teufelsdrockh  dreaded  worse  than  the  pesti- 
lence; nevertheless  to  such  length  he  had  been  forced  to  comply.  Glad 
would  he  have  been  to  sit  here  philosophizing  for  ever,  or  till  the  litter, 
by  accumulation,  drove  him  out  of  doors  :  but  Leischen  was  his  right- 
ami,  and  spoon,  and  necessary  of  life,  and  would  not  be  flatly  gainsay- 
ed.  We  can  still  remember  the  ancient  woman ;  so  silent  that  some 
thought  her  dumb ;  deaf  also  you  would  often  have  supposed  her ;  for 
Teufelsdrockh  and  Teufelsdrockh  only  would  she  serve  or  give  heed 
to ;  and  with  him  she  seemed  to  communicate  chiefly  by  signs ;  if  it 
were  not  rather  by  some  secret  divination  that  she  guessed  all  his  wants, 
and  supplied  them.  Assiduous  old  dame  !  she  scoured,  and  sorted,  and 
swept  in  her  kitchen,  with  the  least  possible  violence  to  the  ear ;  yet  all 
was  tight  and  right  there  ;  hot  and  black  came  the  coffee  ever  at  the  due 
moment ;  and  the  speechless  Leischen  herself  looked  out  on  you,  from 
under  her  clean  white  coif  with  its  lappets,  through  her  clean  withered 
face  and  wrinkles,  with  a  look  of  helpful  intelligence,  almost  of 
benevolence. 

Few  strangers,  as  above  hinted,  had  admittance  hither;  the  only  one 
we  ever  saw  there,  ourselves  excepted,  was  the  Hofrath  Heuschrecke, 
already  known,  by  name  and  expectation,  to  the  readers  of  these  pages. 
To  us,  at  that  period,  Herr  Heuschrecke  seemed  one  of  those  purse- 
mouthed,  crane-necked,  clean-brushed,  pacific  individuals,  perhaps  suf- 
ficiently distinguished  in  society  by  this  fact,  that,  in  dry  weather  or  in 
wet,  "they  never  appear  without  their  umbrella."  Had  we  not  known 
with  what  "  little  wisdom"  the  world  is  governed;  and  how,  in  Germany 
as  elsewhere,  the  ninety  and  nine  Public  Men  can  for  the  most  part  be 
but  mute  train-bearers  to  the  hundredth,  perhaps  but  stalking  horses  and 
willing  or  unwilling  dupes,— it  might  have  seemed  wonderful  how  Herr 
Heuschrecke  should  be  named  a  Rath,  or  Councillor  and  Counsellor, 
even  in  Weissnichtwo.  What  counsel  to  any  man,  or  to  any  woman, 
could  this  particular  Hofrath  give  ;  in  whose  loose,  zigzag  figure ;  in 
whose  thin  visage,  as  it  went  jerking  to  and  fro,  in  minute  incessant 
fluctuation —you  trace  rather  confusion  worse  confounded ;  at  most, 
Timidity  and  physical  Cold  1  Some  indeed  said  withal,  he  was  "  the 
very  Spirit  of  Love  embodied  :"  blue  earnest  eyes,  full  of  sadness  and 
kindness ;  purse  ever  open,  and  so  forth  ;  the  whole  of  which,  we  shall 
now  hope  for  many  reasons,  was  not  quite  groundless.  Nevertheless, 
friend  Teufeldrockh's  outline,  who  indeed  handled  the  burin  like  few 
in  these  cases,  was  probably  the  best :  Er  hat  Gcmuth  und  Geist,  hat 

l 


CHAB  ACT  ERISTICS. 


If) 


wenigstens  gehabt,  dock  ohie  Organ,  ohnc  Schicksals-gunsl ;  isL  gegen- 
■wartig  aher  haib-zerrutlet,  halb-crstarrt,  "  He  has  heart  and  talent,  at 
least  has  had  such,  yet  without  fit  mode  of  utterance,  or  favor  of  For- 
tune ;  and  so  is  now  half-cracked,  half-congealed." — What  the  Hofrath 
shall  think  of  this  when  he  sees  it,  readers  may  wonder  :  we,  safe  in  the 
stronghold  of  Historical  Fidelity,  are  careless. 

The  main  point,  doubtless,  for  us  all,  is  his  love  of  Teufelsdrockh, 
which  indeed  was  also  by  far  the  most  decisive  feature  of  Heuschrecke 
himself.  We  are  enabled  to  assert  that  he  hung  on  the  Professor  with 
the  fondness  of  a  Boswell  for  his  Johnson.  And  perhaps  with  the  like 
return  ;  for  Teufelsdrockh  treated  his  gaunt  admirer  with  little  outward 
regard,  as  some  half-rational  or  altogether  irrational  friend,  and  at  best 
loved  him  out  of  gratitude  and  by  habit  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
curious  to  observe  with  what  reverent  kindness,  and  a  sort  of  fatherly 
protection,  our  Hofrath,  being  the  elder,  richer,  and  as  he  fondly  ima- 
gined far  more  practically  influential  of  the  two,  looked  and  tended  on 
his  little  Sage,  whom  he  seemed  to  consider  as  a  living  oracle.  Let  but 
Teufelsdrockh  open  his  mouth,  Heuschrecke's  also  unpuckered  itself 
into  a  free  doorway,  besides  his  being  all  eye  and  all  ear,  so  that  no- 
thing might  be  lost:  and  then,  at  every  pause  in  the  harangue,  he  gur- 
gled out  his  pursy  chuckle  of  a  cough-laugh  (for  the  machinery  of 
laughter  took  some  time  to  get  in  motion,  and  seemed  crank  and  slack), 
or  else  his  twanging,  nasal  Bravo !  Das  glaub'  ich ;  in  either  case  by 
way  of  heartiest  approval.  In  short,  if  Teufelsdrockh  was  Dalai-Lama, 
of  which,  except  perhaps  in  his  self-seclusion,  and  god-like  Indiffer- 
ence, there  was  no  symptom,  then  might  Heuschrecke  pass  for  his  chief 
Talapoin,  to  whom  no  dough-pill  he  could  knead  and  publish  was  other 
than  medicinal  and  sacred. 

In  such  environment,  social,  domestic,  physical,  did  Teufelsdrockh, 
at  the  time  of  our  acquaintance,  and  most  likely  does  he  still,  live  and 
meditate.  Here,  perched  up  in  his  high  Wahngasse  watchtower,  and 
often,  in  solitude,  outwatching  the  Bear,  it  was  that  the  indomitable 
Inquirer  fought  all  his  battles  with  Durness  and  Darkness  ;  here  in  all 
probability,  that  he  wrote  this  surprising  Volume  on  Clothes.  Additional 
particulars :  of  his  age,  which  was  of  that  standing  middle  sort  you 
could  only  guess  at ;  of  his  wide  surtout ;  the  color  of  his  trousers, 
fashion  of  his  broad-brimmed  steeple-hat,  and  so  forth,  we  might  report, 
but  do  not.  The  Wisest  truly  is,  in  these  times,  the  Greatest ;  so  that 
an  enlightened  curiosity,  leaving  Kings  and  such  like  to  rest  very  much 
on  their  own  basis,  turns  more  and  more  to  the  Philosophic  Class  :  ne- 
vertheless, what  reader  expects  that,  with  all  our  writing  and  reporting, 
Teufelsdrockh  could  be  brought  home  to  him,  till  once  the  Documents 
arrive  %  His  Life,  Fortunes,  and  Bodily  Presence,  are  as  yet  hidden  from 
us,  or  matter  only  of  faint  conjecture.  But  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  his 
Soul  lie  enclosed  in  this  remarkable  Volume,  much  more  truly  than 
Pedro  Garcia's  did  in  the  buried  Bag  of  Doubloons  1  To  the  Soul  of 
Diogenes  Teufelsdrockh,  to  his  opinions  namely  on  the  "  Origin  and 
Influence  of  Clothes,"  we  for  the  present  gladly  return. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CHARACTERISTICS. 

It  were  a  piece  of  vain  flattery  to  pretend  that  this  Work  on  Clothes 
entirely  contents  us ;  that  it  is  not,  like  all  works  of  Genius,  like  the  very 
Sun,  which,  though  the  highest  published  Creation,  or  work  of  Genius, 
has  nevertheless  black  spots  and  troubled  nebulosities  amid  its  efful- 


10 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


gence,— a  mixture  of  insight,  inspiration,  with  dulness,  double-vision, 
and  even  utter  blindness. 

Without  committing  ourselves  to  those  enthusiastic  praises  and  pro- 
phesying* of  the  Weisnicktwo'  sche  Anzeiger,  we  admitted  that  ihe  Book 
had  in  a  high  degree  excited  us  to  self-activity,  which  is  the  best  effect 
of  any  book  ;  that  it  had  even  operated  changes  in  our  way  of  thought ; 
nay,  that  it  promised  to  prove,  as  it  were,  the  opening  of  a  new  mine- 
shaft,  wherein  the  whole  world  of  Speculation  might  henceforth  dig  to 
unknown  depths.  More  specially  it  may  now  be  declared  that  Professor 
Teufelsdrbckh's  acquirements,  patience  of  research,  philosophic  and 
even  poetic  vigor,  are  here  made  indisputably  manifest ;  and  unhappily 
no  less  his  prolixity  and  tortuosity  and  manifold  ineptitude  ;  that,  on  the 
whole,  as  in  opening  new  mine-shafts  is  not  unreasonable,  there  is  much 
rubbish  in  his  Book,  though  likewise  specimens  of  almost  invaluable 
ore.  A  paramount  popularity  in  England  we  cannot  promise  him. 
Apart  from  the  choice  of  such  a  topic  as  Clothes,  too  ofteii  the  manner 
of  treating  it  betokens  in  the  Author  a  rusticity  and  academic  seclusion, 
unblameable,  indeed  inevitable  in  a  German,  but  fatal  to  his  success 
with  our  public. 

Of  good  society  Teufelsdrockh  appears  to  have  seen  little,  or  has 
mostly  forgotten  what  he  saw.  He  speaks  out  with  a  strange  plainness  ; 
calls  many  things  by  their  mere  dictionary  names.  To  him  the  Uphol- 
sterer is  no  Pontiff,  neither  is  any  Drawing-room  a  Temple,  were  it 
never  so  begilt  and  overhung :  "  a  whole  immensity  of  Brussels  carpets, 
and  pier-glasses,  and  or-molu,"  as  he  himself  expresses  it,  "  cannot 
hide  from  me  that  such  Drawing-room  is  simply  a  section  of  Infinite 
Space,  where  so  many  God-created  Souls  do  for  the  time  meet  together." 
To  Teufelsdrockh  the  highest  Duchess  is  respectable,  is  venerable  ;  but 
nowise  for  her  pearl-bracelets,  and  Malines  laces  :  in  his  eyes,  the  star 
of  a  Lord  is  little  less  and  little  more  than  the  broad  button  of  Birming- 
ham spelter  in  a  Clown's  smock ;  "  each  is  an  implement,"  he  says,  "  in 
its  kind  ;  a  tag  for  hooking-togetlier ;  and,  for  the  rest,  was  dug  from  the 
earth,  and  hammered  on  a  stithy  before  smith's  fingers."  Thus  does  the 
Professor  look  in  men's  faces  with  a  strange  impartiality,  a  strange  sci- 
entific freedom ;  like  a  man  unversed  in  the  higher  circles,  like  a  man 
dropped  thither  from  the  Moon.  Rightly  considered,  it  is  in  this  pecu- 
liarity, running  through  his  whole  system  of  thought,  that  all  these  short- 
comings, over-shootings,  and  multiform  perversities,  take  rise  :  if  indeed 
they  have  not  a  second  source,  also  natural  enough,  in  his  Transcend- 
ental Philosophies,  and  humor  of  looking  at  all  Matter  and  Material 
things  as  Spirit ;  whereby  truly  his  case  were  but  the  more  hopeless,  the 
more  lamentable. 

To  the  Thinkers  of  this  nation,  however,  of  which  class  it  is  firmly 
believed  there  are  individuals  yet  extant,  we  can  safely  recommend  the 
Work  :  nay,  who  knows  but  among  the  fashionable  ranks  too,  if  it  be 
true,  as  Teufelsdrockh  maintains,  that  "  within  the  most  starched  cra- 
vat there  passes  a  windpipe  and  weasand,  and  under  the  thickliest  em- 
broidered waistcoat  beats  a  heart," — the  force  of  that  rapt  earnestness 
may  be  felt,  and  here  and  there  an  arrow  of  the  soul  pierce  through.  In 
our  mid  Seer,  shaggy,  unkempt,  like  a  Baptist  living  on  locusts  and 
wild  honey,  there  is  an  untutored  energy,  a  silent  as  it  were  unconscious 
strength,  which,  except  in  the  higher  walks  of  Literature,  must  be  rare. 
Many  a  deep  glance,  and  often  with  unspeakable  precision,  has  he  cast 
into  mysterious  Nature,  and  the  still  more  mysterious  Life  of  Man. 
Wonderful  it  is  with  what  cutting  words  now  and  then,  he  severs  asun- 
der the  confusion ;  sheers  down,  where  it  furlongs  deep,  into  the  true 
centre  of  the  matter;  and  there  not  only  hits  the  nail  on  the  head,  but 
with  crushing  force  smites  it  home  and  buries  it.— On  the  other  hand, 

/ 


CHARACTERISTICS. 


17 


let  us  be  free  to  admit,  he  is  the  most  unequal  writer  breathing.  Often 
after  some  such  feat,  he  will  play  truant  for  long  pages,  and  go  dawd- 
ling and  dreaming,  and  mumbling  and  maundering  the  merest  common- 
places, as  if  he  were  asleep  with  eyes  open,  which  indeed  he  is. 

Of  his  boundless  learning,  and  how  all  reading  and  literature  in  most 
known  tongues,  from  Sanconiathon  to  Dr.  Lingard,  from  your  Oriental 
S/iasters,  and  Talmuds,  and  Korans,  with  Cassini's  Siamese  Tables,  and 
Laplace's  Mecanique  Celeste,  down  to  Robinson  Crusee  and  the  Belfast 
Town  and  Country  Almanack,  are  familiar  to  him,  we  shall  say  nothing : 
for  unexampled  as  it  is  with  us,  to  the  Germans  such  universality  of 
study  passes  without  wonder,  as  a  thing  commendable,  indeed,  but  na- 
tural, indispensable,  and  there  of  course.  A  man  that  devotes  his  life  to 
learning,  shall  he  not  be  learned'? 

In  respect  of  style  our  Author  manifests  the  same  genial  capability, 
marred  too  often  by  the  same  rudeness,  inequality,  and  apparent  want 
of  intercourse  with  the  higher  classes.  Occasionally,  as  above  hinted, 
we  find  consummate  vigor,  a  true  inspiration :  his  burning  Thoughts 
step  forth  in  fit  burning  Words,  like  so  many  full-formed  Minervas, 
issuing  amid  flame  and  splendor  from  Jove's  head ;  a  rich  idiomatic 
diction,  picturesque  allusions,  fiery  poetic  emphasis,  or  quaint  tricksy 
turns ;  all  the  graces  and  terrors  of  a  wild  Imagination,  wedded  to  the 
clearest  Intellect,  alternate  in  beautiful  vicissitude.  Were  it  not  that 
sheer  sleeping  and  soporific  passages ;  circumlocutions,  repetitions,  touches 
even  of  pure  doting  jargon,  so  often  intervene  !  On  the  whole,  Profes- 
sor Teufelsdrockh  is  not  a  cultivated  writer.  Of  his  sentences  perhaps 
not  more  than  nine-tenths  stand  straight  on  their  legs  ;  the  remainder 
are  in  quite  angular  attitudes,  buttressed  up  by  props  (of  parentheses  and 
dashes),  and  ever,  with  this  or  the  other  tagrag  hanging  from  them  ;  a 
few  even  sprawl  out  helplessly  on  all  sides,  quite  broken-backed  and 
dismembered.  Nevertheless,  in  almost  his  very  worst  moods,  there  lies 
in  him  a  singular  attraction.  A  wild  tone  pervades  the  whole  utterance 
of  the  man,  like  its  keynote  and  regulator  ;  now  screwing  itself  aloft  as 
into  the  Song  of  Spirits,  or  else  the  shrill  mockery  of  Fiends ;  now 
sinking  in  cadences,  not  without  melodious  heartiness,  though  some- 
times abrupt  enough,  into  the  common  pitch,  when  we  hear  it  only  as  a 
monotonous  hum  ;  of  which  hum  the  true  character  is  extremely  diffi- 
cult to  fix.  Up  to  this  hour  we  have  never  fully  satisfied  ourselves 
whether  it  is  a  tone  and  hum  of  real  Humor,  which  we  reckon  among 
the  very  highest  qualities  of  genius,  or  some  echo  of  mere  Insanity  and 
Inanity,  which  doubtless  ranks  below  the  very  lowest. 

Under  a  like  difficulty,  in  spite  even  of  our  personal  intercourse,  do 
we  still  lie  with  regard  to  the  Professor's  moral  feeling.  Gleams  of  an 
ethereal  Love  burst  forth  from  him,  soft  wailings  of  infinite  Pity ;  he 
could  clasp  the  whole  Universe  into  his  bosom,  and  keep  it  warm ;  it 
seems  as  if  under  that  rude  exterior  there  dwelt  a  very  seraph.  Then 
again  he  is  so  sly  and  still,  so  imperturbably  saturnine ;  shows  such 
indifference,  malign  coolness  towards  all  that  men  strive  after ;  and 
ever  with  some  half- visible  wrinkle  of  a  bitter  sardonic  humor,  if  indeed 
it  be  not  mere  stolid  callousness, — that  you  look  on  him  almost  with  a 
shudder,  as  on  some  incarnate  Mephistopheles,  to  whom  this  great  ter- 
restrial and  celestial  Round,  after  all,  were  but  some  huge  foolish  Whirli- 
gig, where  kings  and  beggars,  and  angels  and  demons,  and  stars  and 
street-sweepings,  were  chaotically  whirled,  in  which  only  children  could 
take  interest.  His  look,  as  we  mentioned,  is  probably  the  gravest  ever 
seen  :  yet  it  is  not  of  that  cast-iron  gravity  frequent  enough  among  our 
own  Chancery  suitors ;  but  rather  the  gravity  as  of  some  silent,  high- 
encircled  mountain-pool,  perhaps  the  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano  ;  into 
whose  black  deeps  you  fear  to  gaze  :  those  eyes,  those  lights  that  sparkle 


18 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


in  it,  may  indeed  be  reflexes  of  the  heavenly  Stars,  but  perhaps  also 
glances  from  the  region  of  Nether  Fire  ! 

Certainly  a  most  involved,  self-secluded,  altogether  enigmatic  nature, 
this  of  Teufelsdrdckh  !  Here,  however,  we  gladly  recall  to  mind  that 
once  we  saw  him  laugh;  once  only,  perhaps  it  was  the  first  and  last 
time  in  his  life ;  but  then  such  a  peal  of  laughter,  enough  to  have 
awakened  the  Seven  Sleepers !  It  was  of  Jean  Paul's  doing :  some 
single  billow  in  that  vast  World-Mahlstrom  of  Humor,  with  its  Heaven- 
kissing  coruscations,  which  is  now,  alas,  all  congealed  in  the  frost  of 
Death  !  The  large-bodied  Poet  and  the  small,  both  large  enough  in 
soul,  sat  talking  miscellaneously  together,  the  present  Editor  being  pri- 
vileged to  listen  ;  and  now  Paul,  in  his  serious  way,  was  giving  one  of 
those  inimitable  "  Extra-harangues  ;"  and,  as  it  chanced,  On  the  Pro- 
posal for  a  Cast-metal  King :  gradually  a  light  kindled  in  our  Profes- 
sor's eyes  and  face,  a  beaming,  mantling,  loveliest  light ;  through  those 
murky  features,  a  radiant  ever-young  Apollo  looked  ;  and  he  burst  forth 
1  i  ke  the  neighing  of  all  Tattersall's — tears  streaming  down  his  cheeks,  pipe 
held  aloft,  foot  clutched  into  the  air, — loud,  long  continuing,  uncontrol- 
lable ;  a  laugh  not  of  the  face  and  diaphragm  only,  but  of  the  whole 
man  from  head  to  heel.  The  present  Editor,  who  laughed  indeed,  yet 
with  measure,  began  to  fear  all  was  not  right :  however,  Teufelsdrockh 
composed  himself,  and  sank  into  his  old  stillness ;  on  his  inscrutable 
countenance  there  wa«.  if  anything,  a  slight  look  of  shame  ;  and  Rich- 
ter  himself  could  not  rouse  him  again.  Readers  who  have  any  tincture 
of  Psychology  know  how  much  is  to  be  inferred  from  this ;  and  that  no 
man  who  has  once  heartily  and  wholly  laughed  can  be  altogether  irre- 
claimably  bad.  How  much  lies  in  Laughter :  the  cypher-key,  where- 
with we  decipher  the  whole  man  !  Some  men  wear  an  everlasting  bar- 
ren simper ;  in  the  smile  of  others  lies  a  cold  glitter  as  of  ice :  the 
fewest  are  able  to  laugh,  what  can  be  called  laughing,  but  only  sniff  and 
titter  and  snigger  from  the  throat  outwards ;  or  at  best,  produce  some 
whiffling  husky  cachinnation,  as  if  they  were  laughing  through  wool : 
of  none  such  comes  good.  The  man  who  cannot  laugh  is  not  only  fit 
for  treasons,  stratagems,  and  spoils ;  but  his  whole  life  is  already  a 
•  treason  and  a  stratagem. 

Considered  as  an  Author,  Herr  Teufelsdrockh  has  one  scarcely  par- 
donable fault,  doubtless  his  worst :  an  almost  total  want  of  arrangement. 
In  this  remarkable  Volume,  it  is  true,  his  adherence  to  the  mere  course 
of  Time  produces  through  the  Narrative  portions,  a  certain  show  of 
outward  method ;  but  of  true  logical  method  and  sequence  there  is  too 
little.  Apart  from  its  multifarious  sections  and  subdivisions,  the  "Work 
naturally  falls  into  two  Parts  ;  a  Historical-Descriptive,  and  a  Philoso- 
phical-Speculative :  but  falls,  unhappily,  by  no  firm  line  of  demarcation  ; 
in  that  labyrinthic  combination,  each  Part  overlaps,  and  indents,  and 
indeed  runs  quite  through  the  other.  Many  sections  are  of  a  debateable 
rubric,  or  even  quite  nondescript  and  unnameable ;  whereby  the  Book 
not  only  loses  in  accessibility,  but  too  often  distresses  us  like  some  mad 
banquet,  wherein  all  courses  had  been  confounded,  and  fish  and  flesh, 
soup  and  solid  oyster-sauce,  lettuces,  Rhine-wine  and  French  mustard, 
were  hurled  into  one  huge  tureen  or  trough,  and  the  hungry  Public 
invited  to  help  himself.  To  bring  what  order  we  can  out  of  this  Chaos 
shall  be  part  of  our  endeavor. 


THE  WOULD  IN  CLOTHES. 


19 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  WORLD  IN  CLOTHES. 

"  As  Montesquieu  wrote  a  Spirit  of  Laws,"  observes  our  Professor,  "  so 
could  I  write  a  Spirit  of  Clothes  ;  thus  with  an  Esprit  des  Loix,  properly 
an  Esprit  de  Coutumcs,  we  should  have  an  Esprit  de  Costumes.  For 
neither  in  tailoring  nor  in  legislating  does  man  proceed  by  mere  Acci- 
dent, but  the  hand  is  ever  guided  on  by  mysterious  operations  of  the 
mind.  In  all  his  Modes  and  habilatory  endeavors  an  Architectural  Idea 
will  be  found  lurking ;  his  Body  and  the  Cloth  are  the  site  and  materials 
whereon  and  whereby  his  beautified  edifice  of  a  Person  is  to  be  built. 
Whether  he  flow  gracefully  out  in  folded  mantles,  based  on  light  san- 
dals ;  tower  up  in  high  headgear,  from  amid  peaks,  spangles  and  bell- 
girdles  ;  swell  out  in  starched  ruffs,  buckram,  stuffings  and  monstrous 
tuberosities  ;  or  girth  himself  into  separate  sections,  and  front  the  world 
an  Agglomeration  of  four  limbs,— will  depend  on  the  nature  of  such 
Architectural  Idea  :  whether  Grecian,  Gothic,  Later-Gothic,  or  alto- 
gether Modern,  and  Parisian  or  Anglo-Dandiacal.  Again,  what  mean- 
ing lies  in  Color  !  From  the  soberest  drab  to  the  high-flaming  scarlet, 
spiritual  idiosyncrasies  unfold  themselves  in  choice  of  Color:  if  the  Cut 
betoken  Intellect  and  Talent,  so  does  the  Color  betoken  Temper  and 
Heart.  In  all  which,  among  nations  as  among  individuals,  there  is  an 
incessant,  indubitable,  though  infinitely  complex  working  of  Cause  and 
Effect :  every  snip  of  the  Scissors  has  been  regulated  and  prescribed  by 
ever-active  Influences,  which  doubtless  to  Intelligences  of  a  superior 
order  are  neither  invisible  nor  illegible. 

"  For  such  superior  Intelligences  a  Cause-and-Effect  Philosophy  of 
Clothes,  as  of  Laws,  were  probably  a  comfortable  winter-evening  enter- 
tainment :  nevertheless,  for  inferior  Intelligences,  like  men,  such  Phi- 
losophies have  always  seemed  to  me  uninstructive  enough.  Nay,  what  is 
your  Montesquieu  himself  but  a  clever  infant  spelling  Letters  from  a 
hieroglyphical  prophetic  Book,  the  lexicon  of  which  lies  in  Eternity,  in 
Heaven  1— Let  any  Cause-and-Effect  Philosopher  explain,  not  why  I 
wear  such  and  such  a  Garment,  obey  such  and  such  a  Law ;  but  even 
why  /  am  here,  to  wear  and  obey  anything  ! — Much,  therefore,  if  not 
the  whole,  of  that  same  Spirit  of  Clothes  I  shall  suppress,  as  hypothetic- 
al, ineffectual,  and  even  impertinent :  naked  Facts,  and  Deductions  drawn 
therefrom  in  quite  another  than  that  omniscient  style,  are  my  humbler 
and  proper  province." 

Acting  on  which  prudent  restriction,  Teufelsdrockh  has  nevertheless 
contrived  to  take  in  a  well  nigh  boundless  extent  of  field  ;  at  least,  the 
boundaries  too  often  lie  quite  beyond  our  horizon.  Selection  being  indis- 
pensable, we  shall  here  glance  over  his  First  Part  only  in  the  most  cur- 
sory manner.  This  First  Part  is,  no  doubt,  distinguished  by  omnivo- 
rous learning,  and  utmost  patience  and#fairness  :  at  the  same  time,  in  its 
results  and  delineations,  it  is  much  more  likely  to  interest  the  Compilers 
of  some  Library  of  General,  Entertaining,  Useful,  or  even  Useless 
Knowledge  than  the  miscellaneous  readers  of  these  pages.  Was  it  this 
Part  of  the  Book  which  Heuschrecke  had  in  view,  when  he  recommend- 
ed us  to  that  joint-stock  vehicle  of  publication,  "  at  present  the  glory  of 
British  Literature  1"  If  so.  the  Library  Editors  are  welcome  to  dig  in 
it  for  their  own  behoof. 

To  the  First  Chapter,  which  turns  on  Paradise  and  Fig-leaves,  and 
leads  us  into  interminable  disquisitions  of  a  mythological,  metaphorical, 
cabalistico-sartorial  and  quite  antediluvian  cast,  we  shall  content  our- 
selves with  giving  an  unconcerned  approval.    Still  less  have  we  to  do 


20 


SARTOR  RKSARTTTS. 


with  "  Lilis,  Adam's  first  wife,  whom,  according  to  the  Talmudists,  he 
had  before  Eve,  and  who  bore  him,  in  that  wedlock,  the  whole  progeny 
of  aerial,  aquatic,  and  terrestrial  Devils, — very  needlessly,  we  think.  On 
this  portion  of  the  work,  with  its  profound  glances  into  the  Adam-Kad- 
771011,  or  Primeval  Element,  here  strangely  brought  into  relation  with 
the  A7/7  and  Muspel  (Darkness  and  Light)  of  the  antique  North,  it  may 
be  enough  to  say  that  its  correctness  of  deduction  and  depth  of  Tal- 
mudic  and  Rabbinical  lore  has  filled  perhaps  not  the  worst  Hebraist  in 
Britain  with  something  like  astonishment. 

But  quitting  this  twilight  region,  Teufelsdrockh  hastens  from  the 
Tower  of  Babel,  to  follow  the  dispersion  of  Mankind  over  the  whole 
habitable  and  habilable  globe.  Walking  by  the  light  of  Oriental,  Pelas- 
gic,  Scandinavian, Egyptian,  Otaheitean,  Ancient  and  Modern  researches 
of  every  conceivable  kind,  he  strives  to  give  us  in  compressed  shape  (as 
the  Nurnbergers  give  an  Orb  is  P  ictus)  an  Orbis  Vestitus ;  or  view  of 
the  costumes  of  all  mankind,  in  all  countries,  in  all  times.  It  is  here 
that  to  the  Antiquarian,  to  the  Historian,  we  can  triumphantly  say : 
Fall  to!  Here  is  Learning:  an  irregular  Treasury,  if  you  will;  but 
inexhaustible  as  the  Hoard  of  King  Nibelung,  which  twelve  waggons 
in  twelve  days,  at  the  rate  of  three  journeys  a  day,  could  not  carry  off. 
Sheepskin  cloaks  and  wampum  belts  ;  phylacteries,  stoles,  albs  ;  chal- 
mides,  togas,  Chinese  silks,  Afghaun  shawls,  trunk  hose,  leather 
breeches,  Celtic  philibegs  (though  breeches,  as  the  name  Gallia  Braccata 
indicates,  are  the  more  ancient),  Hussar  cloaks,  Vandyke  tippets,  ruffs, 
fardingales,  are  brought  vividly  before  as, — even  the  Kilmarnock  night- 
cap is  not  forgotten.  For  most  part,  too,  we  must  admit  that  the  Learn- 
ing, heterogeneous  as  it  is,  and  tumbled  down  quite  pell-mell,  is  true 
concentrated  and  purified  Learning,  the  drossy  parts  smelted  out  and 
thrown  aside. 

Philosophical  reflections  intervene,  and  sometimes  touching  pictures 
of  human  life.  Of  this  sort  the  following  has  surprised  us.  The  first 
purpose  of  Clothes,  as  our  Professor  imagines,  was  not  warmth  or  de- 
cency, but  ornament.  "  Miserable  indeed,"  says  he,  "  was  the  condition 
of  the  Aboriginal  Savage,  glaring  fiercely  from  under  his  fleece  of  hair, 
which  with  the  beard  reached  down  to  his  loins,  and  hung  round  him 
like  a  matted  cloak ;  the  rest  of  his  body  sheeted  in  its  thick  natural  fell. 
He  loitered  in  the  sunny  glades  of  the  forest,  living  on  wild  fruits ;  or, 
as  the  ancient  Caledonian,  squatted  himself  in  morasses,  lurking  for  his 
bestial  or  human  prey;  without  implements,  without  arms,  save  the  ball 
of  heavy  Flint,  to  which,  that  his  sole  possession  and  defence  might  not 
be  lost,  he  had  attached  a  long  cord  of  plaited  thongs ;  thereby  recover- 
ing as  well  as  hurling  it  with  deadly  unerring  skill.  Nevertheless,  the 
pains  of  Hunger  and  Revenge  once  satisfied,  his  next  care  was  not 
Comfort  but  Decoration  (Putz).  Warmth  he  found  in  the  toils  of  the 
chase ;  or  amid  dried  leaves,  in  his  hollow  tree,  in  his  bark  shed,  or  na- 
tural grotto :  but  for  Decoration  he  must  have  Clothes.  Nay,  among 
wild  people,  we  find  tattooing  and  painting  even  prior  to  Clothes.  The 
first  spiritual  want  of  a  barbarous  man  is  Decoration,  as  indeed  we  still 
see  among  the  barbarous  classes  in  civilized  countries. 

"Reader,  the  heaven-inspired  melodious  Singer;  loftiest  Serene 
Highness;  nay  thy  own  amber-locked,  snow-and-rosebloom  Maiden, 
worthy  to  glide  sylphlike  almost  on  air,  whom  thou  lovest,  worshippest 
as  a  divine  Presence,  which  indeed,  symbolically  taken,  she  is, — has 
descended,  like  thyself,  from  that  same  hair-mantled,  flint-hurling  Abo- 
riginal Anthropophagus  !  Out  of  the  eater  cometh  forth  meat ;  out  of 
the  strong  cometh  forth  sweetness.  What  changes  are  wrought,  not  by 
Time,  yet  in  Time  !  For  not  Mankind  only,  but  all  that  Mankind  does 
or  beholds,  is  in  con'inual  growth,  re-srenesis  and  self-perfecting  vitality. 

/ 


THE  WORLD  IN  CLOTHES. 


21 


Cast  forth  thy  Act,  thy  Word,  into  the  ever-living,  ever-working  Uni- 
verse :  it  is  a  seed-grain  that  cannot  die ;  unnoticed  to-day  (says  one)  it 
will  be  found  nourishing  as  a  Banyan-grove  (perhaps,  alas,  as  a  Hem- 
lock-forest !)  after  a  thousand  years. 

"  He  who  first  shortened  the  labor  of  Copyists  by  device  of  Movable 
Types  was  disbanding  hired  Armies,  and  cashiering  most  Kings  and 
Senates,  and  creating  a  whole  new  Democratic  world:  he  had  invented 
the  Art  of  Printing.  The  first  ground  handful  of  Nitre,  Sulphur,  and 
Charcoal  drove  Monk  Schwartz's  pestle  through  the  ceiling:  what  will 
the  last  do  1  Achieve  the  final  undisputed  prostration  of  Force  under 
Thought,  of  Animal  Courage  under  Spiritual.  A  simple  invention  it 
was  in  the  old-world  Grazier, — sick  of  lugging  his  slow  Ox  about  the 
country  till  he  got  it  bartered  for  corn  or  oil, — to  take  a  piece  of  Leather, 
and  thereon  scratch  or  stamp  the  mere  Figure  of  an  Ox  (or  Pecus);  put 
it  in  his  pocket,  and  call  it  Pecunia,  Money.  Yet  hereby  did  Barter 
grow  Sale,  the  Leather  Money  is  now  Golden  and  Paper,  and  all  mira- 
cles have  been  out-miracled :  for  there  are  Rothschilds  and  English  Na- 
tional Debts ;  and  whoso  has  sixpence  is  Sovereign  (to  the  length  of  six- 
pence) over  all  men ;  commands  Cooks  to  feed  him,  Philosophers  to 
teach  him,  Kings  to  mount  guard  over  him, — to  the  length  of  sixpence. 
— Clothes  too,  which  began  in  foolishest  love  of  Ornament,  what  have 
they  not  become  !  Increased  Security,  and  pleasurable  Heat  soon  fol- 
lowed: but  what  of  these'?  Shame,  divine  Shame  (Schaam,  Modesty), 
as  yet  a  stranger  to  the  Anthropophagous  bosom,  arose  there  mysteriously 
under  Clothes;  a  mystic  grove-encircled  shrine  for  the  Holy  in  man. 
Clothes  gave  us  individuality,  distinctions,  social  polity ;  Clothes  have 
made  Men  of  us ;  they  are  threatening  to  make  Clothes-screens  of  us. 

"  But  on  the  whole,"  continues  our  eloquent  Professor,  "  Man  is  a  Tool- 
using  Animal  (Hanthierendes  Thier).  Weak  in  himself,  and  of  small 
stature,  he  stands  on  a  basis,  at  most  for  the  flattest-soled,  of  some  half 
square-foot,  insecurely  enough;  has  to  straddle  out  his  legs,  lest  the  very 
wind  supplant  him.  Feeblest  of  bipeds  !  Three  quintals  are  a  crush- 
ing load  for  him ;  the  Steer  of  the  meadow  tosses  him  aloft  like  a  waste 
rag.  Nevertheless  he  can  use  Tools,  can  devise  Tools :  with  these  the 
granite  mountain  melts  into  light  dust  before  him ;  he  kneads  glowing 
iron,  as  if  it  were  soft  paste ;  seas  are  his  smooth  highway,  winds  and 
fire  his  unwearying  steeds.  Nowhere  do  you  find  him  without  Tools ; 
without  Tools  he  is  nothing,  with  Tools  he  is  all." 

Here  may  we  not,  for  a  moment,  interrupt  the  stream  of  Oratory  with 
a  remark  that  this  Definition  of  the  Tool-using  Animal  appears  to  us, 
of  all  that  Animal-sort,  considerably  the  precisest  and  best  1  Man  is 
called  a  Laughing  Animal :  but  do  not  the  apes  also  laugh,  or  attempt 
to  do  it ;  and  is  the  manliest  man  the  greatest  and  oftenest  laugher  1 
Teufelsdrockh  himself,  as  we  said,  laughed  only  once.  Still  less  do  we 
make  of  that  other  French  Definition  of  the  Cooking  Animal ;  which, 
indeed,  for  rigorous  scientific  purposes,  is  as  good  as  useless.  Can  a 
Tartar  be  said  to  cook,  when  he  only  readies  his  steak  by  riding  on  it  1 
Again,  what  Cookery  does  the  Greenlander  use,  beyond  stowing  up  his 
whale-blubber,  as  a  marmot,  in  the  like  case,  might  do  1  Or  how  would 
Monsieur  Ude  prosper  among  those  Orinocco  Indians  who,  according 
to  Humboldt,  lodge  in  crow-nests,  on  the  branches  of  trees ;  and,  for 
half  the  year,  have  no  victuals  but  pipe-clay,  the  whole  country  being 
under  water  1  But  on  the  other  hand,  show  us  the  human  being,  of  any 
period  or  climate,  without  his  Tools :  those  very  Caledonians,  as  we  saw, 
had  their  Flint-ball,  and  Thong  to  it,  such  as  no  brute  has  or  can  have. 

"  Man  is  a  Tool-using  animal,"  concludes  Teufelsdrockh  in  his 
abrupt  way;  "  of  which  truth  Clothes  are  but  one  example :  and  surely 
if  we  consider  the  interval  between  the  first  wooden  Dibble  fashioned  by 


22 


SAKTOTt  RESARTTTS. 


man,  and  those  Liverpool  Steam-carriages,  or  the  British  House  ot 
Commons,  we  shall  note  what  progress  he  has  made.  He  digs  up  cer- 
tain black  stones  from  the  bosom  of  the  Earth,  and  says  to  them,  Trans- 
fort  me,  and  this  luggage,  at  the  rate  of  fivc-and-thirty  miles  an  hour ;  and 
they  do  it :  he  collects,  apparently  by  lot,  six  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
miscellaneous  individuals,  and  says  to  them,  Make  this  nation  toil  for 
us,  bleed  for  us,  hunger,  and  sorrovj,  and  sin  for  us;  and  they  do  it." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

APRONS. 

One  of  the  most  unsatisfactory  Sections  in  the  whole  Volume  is  that 
on  Aprons.  What  though  stout  old  Gao  the  Persian  Blacksmith,  "  whose 
Apron,  now  indeed  hidden  under  jewels,  because  raised  in  revolt  which 
proved  successful,  is  still  the  royal  standard 'of  that  country;"  what 
though  John  Knox's  Daughter,  "  who  threatened  Sovereign  Majesty 
that  she  would  catch  her  Husband's  head  in  her  Apron,  rather  than  he 
.should  lie  and  be  a  bishop  ;"  what  though  the  Landgravine  Elizabeth, 
with  many  other  Apron  worthies, — figure  here  1  An  idle  wire-drawing 
spirit,  sometimes  even  a  tone  of  levity,  approaching  to  conventional 
.satire,  is  too  clearly  discernible.  What,  for  example,  are  we  to  make 
of  such  sentences  as  the  following'? 

"  Aprons  are  Defences;  against  injury  to  cleanliness,  to  safety,  to  mo- 
desty, sometimes  to  roguery.  From  the  thin  slip  of  notched  silk  (as  it 
were,  the  Emblem  and  beatified  Ghost  of  an  Apron),  which  some  high- 
est-bred housewife,  sitting  at  Niirnberg  Workboxes  and  Toyboxes,  has 
gracefully  fastened  on ;  to  the  thick-tanned  hide,  girt  round  him  with 
thongs,  wherein  the  Builder  builds,  and  at  evening  sticks  his  trowel ;  or 
to  those  jingling  sheet-iron  Aprons,  wherein  your  otherwise  half-naked 
Vulcans  hammer  and  smelt  in  their  Smelt-furnace, — is  there  not  range 
enough  in  the  fashion  and  uses  of  this  Vestment  1  How  much  has 
been  concealed,  how  much  has  been  defended  in  Aprons !  Nay,  rightly 
considered,  what  is  your  whole  Military  and  Police  Establishment, 
charged  at  uncalculated  millions,  but  a  huge  scarlet-colored,  iron-fast- 
ened Apron,  wherein  Society  works  (uneasily  enough) ;  guarding  itself 
from  some  soil  and  stithy-sparks,  in  this  Devil's-smithy  {Teufels- 
tchmiede)  of  a  world  1  But  of  all  Aprons  the  most  puzzling  to  me 
hitherto  has  been  the  Episcopal,  or  Cassock.  Wherein  consists  the  use- 
fulness of  this  Apron  1  The  Overseer  {Episcopus)  of  Souls,  I  notice,  has 
tucked  in  the  corner  of  it,  as  if  his  day's  work  were  done ;  what  does 
he  shadow  forth  thereby  V  &c.  &c. 

Or  again,  has  it  often  been  the  lot  of  our  readers  to  read  such  stuff  as 
we  shall  now  quote  1 

"  I  consider  those  printed  Paper  Aprons,  worn  by  the  Parisian  Cooks, 
as  a  new  vent,  though  a  slight  one,  for  Typography  ;  therefore  as  an 
encouragement  to  modern  Literature,  and  deserving  of  approval :  nor  is 
it  without  satisfaction  that  I  hear  of  a  celebrated  London  Firm  having 
in  view  to  introduce  the  same  fashion,  with  important  extensions,  in 
England." — We  who  are  on  the  spot  hear  of  no  such  thing ;  and  indeed 
have  reason  to  be  thankful  that  hitherto  there  are  other  vents  for  our 
Literature,  exuberant  as  it  is. — Teufelsdrdckh  continues  :  "  If  such  sup- 
ply of  printed  Paper  should  rise  so  far  as  to  choke  up  the  highways  and 

?iiblic  thoroughfares,  new  means  must  of  necessity  be  had  recourse  to. 
n  a  world  existing  by  Industry,  we  grudge  to  employ  Fire  as  a  destroy- 
ing element,  and  not  as  a  creating  one.  However,  Heaven  is  omnipo- 
tent, and  will  find  us  an  outlet.    In  the  mean  while,  is  it  not  beautiful 

/ 


MISCELLANEOUS-HISTORICAL. 


23 


to  .see  five  million  quintals  of  Rags  picked  annually  from  the  Lay-Stall; 
and  annually,  after  being  macerated,  hot-pressed,  printed  on,  and  sold, — 
returned  thither  ;  filling  so  many  hungry  mouths  by  the  way  7  Thus  is 
the  Laystall,  especially  with  its  Rags,  or  Clothes-rubbish,  the  grand 
Electric  Battery,  and  Fountain-of-Moiion,  from  which  and  to  which  the 
Social  Activities  (like  vitreous  and  resinous  Electricities)  circulate,  in 
larger  or  smaller  circles,  through  the  mighty,  billowy,  storm-tost  Chaos 
of  Life,  which  they  keep  alive  !" — Such  passages  fill  us,  who  love  the 
man,  and  partly  esteem  him,  with  a  very  mixed  feeling. 

Farther  down  we  met  with  this :  "  The  Journalists  are  now  the  true 
Kings  and  Clergy :  henceforth  Historians,  unless  they  are  fools,  must 
write  not  of  Bourbon  Dynasties,  and  Tudors  and  Hapsburgs ;  but  of 
Stamped  Broad-sheet  Dynasties,  and  quite  new  successive  Names, 
according  as  this  or  the  other  Able  Editor,  or  Combination  of  Able 
Editors,  gains  the  world's  ear.  Of  the  British  Newspaper  Press,  per- 
haps the  most  important  of  all,  and  wonderful  enough  in  its  secret  con- 
stitution and  procedure,  a  valuable  descriptive  History  already  exists, 
in  that  language,  under  the  title  of  Satan's  Invisible  World  Displayed  ; 
which,  however,  by  search  in  all  the  Weissnichtwo  Libraries,  I  have 
not  yet  succeeded  in  procuring  {yermbchte  nicht  aufzutreiben)." 

Thus  does  the  good  Homer  not  only  nod,  but  snore.  Thus  does  Teu- 
felsdrdckh,  wandering  in  regions  where  he  had  little  business,  confound 
the  old  authentic  Presbyterian  Witchfinder  with  a  new,  spurious,  ima- 
ginary Historian  of  the  Brittische  Journalistik  ;  and  so  stumble  on  per- 
haps the  most  egregious  blunder  in  Modern  Literature ! 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MISCELLANEOUS-HISTORICAL. 

Happier  is  our  Professor,  and  more  purely  scientific  and  historic, 
when  he  reaches  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe,  and  down  to  the  end  of 
the  Seventeenth  Century ;  the  true  era  of  extravagance  in  Costume.  It  is 
here  that  the  Antiquary  and  student  of  Modes  comes  upon  his  richest 
harvest.  Fantastic  garbs,  beggaring  all  fancy  of  a  Teniers  or  a  Callot, 
succeed  each  other,  like  monster  devouring  monster  in  a  Dream.  The 
whole  too  in  brief  authentic  strokes,  and  touched  not  seldom  with  that 
breath  of  genius  which  makes  even  old  raiment  alive.  Indeed,  so  learned, 
precise,  graphical,  and  every  way  interesting  have  we  found  these  Chap- 
ters, that  it  may  be  thrown  out  as  a  pertinent  question  for  parties  con- 
cerned, Whether  or  not  a  good  English  Translation  thereof  might  hence- 
forth be  profitably  incorporated  with  Mr.  Merrick's  valuable  Work  On 
Ancient  Armor?  Take,  by  way  of  example,  the  following  sketch;  as 
authority  for  which  Paulinus's  Zeitkurzende  Lust  (n.  678)  is,  with 
seeming  confidence,  referred  to  : 

"  Did  we  behold  the  German  fashionable  dress  of  the  Fifteenth  Cen- 
tury, we  might  smile  ;  as  perhaps  those  bygone  Germans,  were  they  to 
rise  again,  and  see  our  haberdashery,  would  cross  themselves,  and 
invoke  the  Virgin.  But  happily  no  bygone  German,  or  man,  rises  again  ; 
thus  the  Present  is  not  needlessly  trammelled  with  the  Past;  and  only 
grows  out  of  it,  like  a  Tree,  whose  roots  are  not  intertangled  with  its 
branches,  but  lie  peaceably  under  ground.  Nay,  it  is  very  mournful, 
yet  not  useless,  to  see  and' know,  how  the  Greatest  and  Dearest,  in  a 
short,  while  would  find  his  place  quite  filled  up  here,  and  no  room  for 
him ;  the  very  Napoleon,  the  very  Byron,  in  some  seven  years,  has 
become  obsolete,  and  were  now  a  foreigner  to  his  Europe.    Thus  is  the 


24 


SARTOR  RKSARTUS. 


Law  of  Progress  secured ;  and  in  Clothes,  as  in  all  other  external  things 
whatsoever,  no  fashion  will  continue. 

"  Of  the  military  classes  in  those  old  times,  whose  buff-belts,  compli- 
cated chains  and  gorgets,  huge  churn-boots,  and  other  riding  and  fight- 
ing gear  have  been  bepainted  in  modern  Romance,  till  the  whole  has 
acquired  somewhat  of  a  signpost  character, — I  shall  here  say  nothing: 
the  civil  and  pacific  classes,  less  touched  upon,  are  wonderful  enough 
for  us. 

"Rich  men,  I  find,  have  Tcusinke"  (a  perhaps  untranslateable  arti- 
cle) ;  "  also  a  silver  girdle,  whereat  hang  little  bells ;  so  that  when  a 
man  walks  it  is  with  continual  jingling.  Some  few,  of  musical  turn, 
have  a  whole  chime  of  bells  (Glockenspiel)  fastened  there;  which  espe- 
cially, in  sudden  whirls,  and  the  other  accidents  of  walking,  has  a  grate- 
ful effect.  Observe,  too,  how  fond  they  are  of  peaks,  and  Gothic-arch  in- 
tersections. The  male  world  wears  peaked  caps,  an  ell-long,  which 
Jiang  bobbing  over  the  side  (schief  ) :  their  shoes  are  peaked  in  front,  also 
to  the  length  of  an  ell,  and  laced  on  the  side  with  tags ;  even  the  wooden 
shoes  have  their  ell-long  noses :  some  also  clap  bells  on  the  peak.  Far- 
ther according  to  my  authority,  the  men  have  breeches  without  seat 
(ohne  Gesass) :  these  they  fasten  peakwise  to  their  shirts ;  and  the  long 
round  doublet  must  overlap  them. 

"  Rich,  maidens  again,  flit  abroad  in  gowns  scolloped  out  behind  and 
before,  so  that  back  and  breast  are  almost  bare.  Wives  of  quality,  on 
the  other  hand,  have  train-gowns  four  or  five  ells  in  length  ;  which  trains 
there  are  boys  to  carry.  Brave  Cleopatras  sailing  in  their  silk-cloth 
Galley,  with  a  Cupid  for  steersman !  Consider  their  welts,  a  hand 
breadth  thick,  which  waver  round  them  by  way  of  a  hem ;  the  long  flood 
of  silver  buttons,  or  rather  silver  shells,  from  throat  to  shoe,  wherewith 
these  same  welt-gowns  are  buttoned.  The  maidens  have  bound  silver 
snoods  about  their  hair,  with  gold  spangles,  and  pendent  flames  (Flam- 
men),  that  is,  sparkling  hair-drops  :  but  of  their  mother's  headgear  who 
shall  speak  1  Neither  in  love  of  grace  is  comfort  forgotten.  In  winter 
weather  you  behold  the  whole  fair  creation  (who  can  afford  it)  in  long 
mantles,  with  skirts  wide  below,  and,  for  hem,  not  one  but  two  sufficient 
handbroad  welts :  all  ending  atop  in  a  thick  well-starched  Ruff,  some 
twenty  inches  broad  :  these  are  their  Ruff-mantles  (Kragenmantel). 

"  As  yet,  among  the  womankind  hoop-petticoats  are  not ;  but  the  men 
have  doublets  of  fustian,  under  which  lie  multiple  ruffs  of  cloth,  pasted 
together  with  batter  (mit  Trig  zusammatgckleisterl),  which  create  protu- 
berance enough.  Thus  do  the  two  sexes  vie  with  each  other  in  the  art 
of  Decoration  ;  and  as  usual  the  stronger  carries  it." 

Our  Professor,  whether  he  have  Humor  himself  or  not,  manifests  a 
certain  feeling  of  the  Ludicrous,  a  sly  observance  of  it,  which,  could 
emotion  of  any  kind  be  confidently  predicated  of  so  still  a  man,  we  might 
call  a  real  love.  None  of  those  bell-girdles,  bushel-breeches,  cornuted 
shoes,  or  other  the  like  phenomena,  of  which  the  History  of  Dress  offers 
so  many,  escape  him;  more  especially  the  mischances,  or  striking 
adventures,  incident  to  the  wearers  of  such,  are  noticed  with  due  fidelity. 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  fine  mantle,  which  he  spread  in  the  mud  under 
Queen  Elizabeth's  feet,  appears  to  provoke  little  enthusiasm  in  him  ;  he 
merely  asks,  Whether  at  that  period  the  Maiden  Queen  "  was  red- 
painted  on  the  nose,  and  white-painted  on  the  cheeks,  as  her  tirewomen, 
when  from  spleen  and  wrinkles  she  would  no  longer  look  in  any  glass, 
were  wont  to  serve  her  ?"  We  can  answer  that  Sir  Walter  knew  well 
what  he  was  doing,  and  had  the  Maiden  Queen  been  stuffed  parchment 
dyed  in  verdigris,  would  have  done  the  same. 

Thus  too,  treating  of  those  enormous  habiliments,  that  were  not  only 
slashed  and  galooned,  but  artificially  swollen  out  on  the  broader  parts 

/ 


THE  WORLD  OUT  OF  CLOTHES. 


25 


of  the  body,  by  introduction  of  Bran,  our  Professor  fails  not  to  Com- 
ment on  that  luckless  Courtier,  who  having  sealed  himself  on  a  chair 
with  some  projecting  nail  on  it,  and  therefrom  rising,  to  pay  his  devoir 
on  the  entrance  of  Majesty,  instantaneously  emitted  several  pecks  of 
dry  wheat-dust :  and  stood  there  diminished  to  a  spindle,  his  galoons  and 
slashes  dangling  sorrowful  and  flabby  round  him.  Whereupon  the  Pro- 
fessor publishes  this  reflection  : 

"  By  what  strange  chances  do  we  live  in  History  !  Erostratus  by  a 
torch ;  Milo  by  a  bullock ;  Henry  Darnley,  an  unfledged  booby  and 
bustard,  by  his  limbs ;  most  Kings  and  Glueens  by  being  born  under  such 
and  such  a  bed-tester ;  Boileau  Despreaux  (according  to  Helvetius)  by 
the  peck  of  a  turkey;  and  this  ill-starred  individual  by  a  rent  in  his 
breeches, — for  no  Memoirist  of  Kaiser  Otto's  Court  omits  him.  Vain 
was  the  prayer  of  Themistocles  for  a  talent  of  Forgetting :  my  Friends, 
yield  cheerfully  to  Destiny,  and  read  since  it  is  written." — Has  Teufels- 
drockh to  be  put  in  mind  that,  nearly  related  to  the  impossible  talent  of 
Forgetting,  stands  that  talent  of  Silence,  which  even  travelling  English- 
men manifest  1 

"  The  simplest  costume,"  observes  our  Professor,  "  which  I  anywhere 
find  alluded  to  in  History,  is  that  used  as  regimental,  by  Bolivar's  Ca- 
valry, in  the  late  Columbian  wars.  A  square  Blanket,  twelve  feet  in 
diagonal,  is  provided  (some  were  wont  to  cut  off  the  corners,  and  make 
it  circular) :  in  the  centre  a  slit  is  effected  eighteen  inches  long ;  through 
this  the  mother-naked  Trooper  introduces  his  head  and  neck ;  and  so 
rides  shielded  from  all  weather,  and  in  battle  from  many  strokes  (for  he 
rolls  it  about  his  left  arm) ;  and  not  only  dressed,  but  harnessed  and 
draperied." 

With  which  picture  of  a  State  of  Nature,  affecting  by  its  singularity, 
and  Old-Roman  contempt  of  the  superfluous,  we  shall  quit  this  part  of 
our  subject. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  WORLD  OUT  OF  CLOTHES. 

If  in  the  Descriptive- Historical  Portion  of  this  Volume, Teufelsdrockh, 
discussing  merely  the  Wcrdcn  (Origin  and  successive  Improvement)  of 
Clothes,  has  astonished  many  a  reader,  much  more  will  he  in  the  Specu- 
lative-Philosophical Portion,  which  treats  of  their  Wirkcn,  or  Influences. 
It  is  here  that  the  present  Editor  first  feels  the  pressure  of  his  task  ;  for 
here  properly  the  higher  and  new  Philosophy  of  Clothes  commences : 
an  untried,  almost  inconceivable  region,  or  chaos:  in  venturing  upon 
which,  how  difficult,  yet  how  unspeakably  important  is  it  to  know  what 
course,  of  survey  and  conquest,  is  the  true  one;  where  the  footing  is 
firm  substance  and  will  bear  us,  where  it  is  hollow,  or  mere  cloud,  and 
may  engulf  us  !  Teufelsdrockh  undertakes  no  less  than  to  expound  the 
moral,  political,  even  religious  Influences  of  Clothes;  he  undertakes  to 
make  manifest,  in  its  thousandfold  bearings,  this  grand  Proposition,  that 
Man's  earthly  interests  are  "  all  hooked  and  buttoned  together,  and 
held  up,  by  Clothes."  He  says  in  so  many  words,  "  Society  is 
founded  upon  Cloth;"  and  again,  "Society  sails  through  the  Infini- 
tude on  Cloth,  as  on  a  Faust's  Mantle,  or  rather  like  the  Sheet  of  clean 
and  unclean  beasts  in  the  Apostle's  Dream ;  and  without  such  Sheet  or 
Mantle,  wrould  sink  to  endless  depths,  or  mount  to  inane  limboes,  and  in 
either  case  be  no  more." 

By  what  chains,  or  indeed  infinitely  complected  tissues  of  Meditation 
this  grand  Theorem  is  here  unfolded,  and  innumerable  practical  Corol- 
3 


2b 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


laries  are  drawn  therefrom,  it  were  perhaps  a  mad  ambition  to  attempt 
exhibiting.  Our  Professor's  method  is  not,  in  any  case,  that  of  common 
school  Logic,  where  the  truths  all  stand  in  a  row,  each  holding  by  the 
skirts  of  the  other;  but  at  best  that  of  practical  Reason,  proceeding  by 
large  Intuition  over  whole  systematic  groups  and  kingdoms;  whereby, 
we  might  say,  a  noble  complexity,  almost  like  that  of  Nature,  reigns  in 
his  Philosophy,  or  spiritual  Picture  of  Nature:  a  mighty  maze,  yet,  as 
faith  whispers,  not  without  a  plan.  Nay,  we  complained  above,  that  a 
certain  ignoble  complexity,  what  we  must  call  mere  confusion,  was  also 
discernible.  Oftenftoo,  must  we  exclaim:  Would  to  Heaven  those 
same  Biographical  Documents  were  come !  For  it  seems  as  if  the 
demonstration  lay  much  in  the  Author's  individuality;  as  if  it  were  not 
Argument  that  had  taught  him,  but  Experience.  At  present,  it  is  only  in 
Jocal  glimpses,  and  by  significant  fragments,  picked  often  at  wide 
enough  intervals  from  the  original  Volume,  and  carefully  collated,  that 
we  can  hope  to  impart  some  outline  or  foreshadow  of  this  Doctrine. 
Readers  of  any  intelligence  are  once  more  invited  to  favor  us  with  their 
most  concentrated  attention  :  let  these,  after  intense  consideration,  and  not 
till  then,  pronounce,  Whether  on  the  utmost  verge  of  our  actual  horizon 
there  is  not  a  looming  as  of  Land  ;  a  promise  of  new  Fortunate  Islands, 
perhaps  whole  undiscovered  Americas,  for  such  as  have  canvass  to  sail 
thither  1 — As  exordium  to  the  whole,  stand  here  the  following  long 
citation  : 

"  With  men  .of  a  speculative  turn,"  writes  Teufelsdrdckh,  "  there 
come  seasons,  meditative,  sweet,  yet  awful  hours,  when  in  wonder  and 
fear  you  ask  yourself  that  unanswerable  question :  Who  am  / ;  the 
thing  that  can  say  "  I  "  {das  Wesen  das  sich  Ich  nennt)1  The  world, 
with  its  loud  trafficking,  retires  into  the  distance;  and,-  through  the 
paper-hangings,  and  stone  walls,  and  thick-plied  tissues  of  Commerce 
and  Polity,  and  all  the  living  and  lifeless  Integuments  (of  Society  and  a 
Body),  wherewith  your  Existence  sits  surrounded,  the  sight  reaches  forth 
into  the  void  Deep,  and  you  are  alone  with  the  Universe,  and  silently 
commune  with  it,  as  one  mysterious  presence  with  another. 

"  Who  am  I ;  what  is  this"  Me  1  A  Voice,  a  Motion,  an  Appearance  ;— 
some  embodied,  visualised  Idea  in  the  Eternal  Mind  1  Cogito,  ergo  sum. 
Alas,  poor  Cogitator,  this  takes  us  but  a  little  way.  Sure  enough,  I  am  ; 
and  lately  was  not :  but  Whence  1  How  1  Whereto  1  The  answer 
lies  around,  written  in  all  colors  and  motions,  uttered  in  all  tones  of 
jubilee  and  wail,  in  thousand-figured,  thousand-voiced,  harmonious  Na- 
ture :  but  where  is  the  cunning  eye  and  ear  to  whom  that  God- written 
Apocalypse  will  yield  articulate  meaning'?  We  sit  as  in  a  boundless 
Phantasmagoria  and  Dream-grotto ;  boundless,  for  the  faintest  star,  the 
remotest  century,  lies  not  even  nearer  the  verge  thereof:  sounds  and 
many-colored  visions  flit  round  our  sense  ;  but  Him,  the  Unslumbering, 
whose  work  both  Dream  and  Dreamer  are,  we  see  not ;  except  in  rare 
half-waking  moments,  suspect  not.  Creation,  says  one,  lies  before  us, 
like  a  glorious  rainbow  ;  but  the  Sun  that  made  it  lies  behind  us,  hidden 
from  us.  Then,  in  that  strange  Dream,  how  we  clutch  at  shadows  as 
(  if  they  were  substances;  and  sleep  deepest  while  fancying  ourselves 
most  awrake  !  Which  of  your  Philosophical  Systems  is  other  than  a 
dream  theorem  ;  a  net  quotient,  confidently  given  out,  where  divisor  and 
dividend  are  both  unknown'?  What  are  all  your  national  Wars, 
with  their  Moscow  Retreats,  and  sanguinary  hate-filled  Revolutions,  but 
the  Somnambulism  of  uneasy  Sleepers  1  This  Dreaming,  this  Som- 
nambulism is  what  we  on  Earth  call  Life ;  wherein  the  most  indeed 
undoubtingly  wander,  as  if  they  knew  right  hand  from  left ;  yet  they 
only  are  wise  who  know  that  they  know  nothing. 

"  Pity  that  all  Metaphysics  had  hitherto  proved  so  inexpressibly  un- 


THE  WOULD  OUT  OE  CLOTHES. 


•27 


productive  !  The  secret  of  Man's  Being  is  still  like  the  Sphinx's  secret : 
a  riddle  that  he  cannot  rede;  and  for  ignorance  of  which  he  suffers 
death,  the  worst  death,  a  spiritual.  What  are  your  Axioms,  and  Cate- 
gories, and  Systems,  and  Aphorisms'?  Words,  words.  High  Air-cas- 
tles are  cunningly  built  of  Words,  the  Words  well  bedded  also  in  good 
Logic-mortar;  wherein,  however,  no  Knowledge  will  come  to  lodge. 
The  whole  is  greater  than  the  part :  how  exceedingly  true  !  Nature  ab~ 
hors  a  vacuum :  how  exceedingly  false  and  calumnious  !  Again,  Noth- 
ing can  act  but  where  it  is :  with  all  my  heart ;  only  where  is  it  1  Be 
not  the  slave  of  Words:  is  not  the  Distant,  the  Dead,  while  I  love  it, 
and  long  for  it,  and  mourn  for  it,  Here,  in  the  genuine  sense,  as  truly  as 
the  floor  I  stand  on?  But  that  same  Where,  with  its  brother  Whrn, 
are  from  the  first  the  master-colors  of  our  Dream-grotto  ;  say  rather,  the 
Canvass  (the  warp  and  woof  thereof)  whereon  all  our  Dreams  and 
Life-visions  are  painted.  Nevertheless,  has  not  a  deeper  meditation 
taught  certain  of  every  climate  and  age,  that  the  Whkre  and  When,  so 
mysteriously  inseparable  from  all  our  thoughts,  are  but  superficial  ter- 
restrial adhesions  to  thought ;  that  the  Seer  may  discern  them  where 
they  mount  up  out  of  the  celestial  Everywhere  and  For  ever  :  have  not 
all  nations  conceived  their  God  as  Omnipresent  and  Eternal ;  as  exist- 
ing in  a  universal  Here,  an  everlasting  Now  ?  Think  well,  thou  too 
wilt  find  that  Space  is  but  a  mode  of  our  human  Sense,  so  likewise 
Time ;  there  is  no  Space  and  no  Time  :  We  are — we  know  not  what ; 
— light-sparkles  floating  in  the  aether  of  Deity ! 

"  So  that  this  so  solid-seeming  World,  after  all,  were  but  an  air-image, 
our  Me  the  only  reality:  and  Nature,  with  its  thousandfold  production 
and  destruction,  but  the  reflex  of  our  own  inward  Force,  the  "  phantasy 
of  our  Dream ;"  or  what  the  Earth-Spirit  in  Faust  names  it,  the  living 
visible  Garment  of  God : 


"  '  In  Being's  floods,  in  Action's  storm, 
I  walk  and  work,  above,  beneath. 
Work  and  weave  in  endless  motion  ! 
Birth  and  Death, 
An  infinite  ocean  ; 


A  seizing  and  giving 
The  fire  of  the  Living  : 
'Tis  thus  at  the  roaring  Loom  of  Time  I  ply, 
And  weave  for  God  the  Garment  thou  seest 
Him  by.' 


"  Of  twenty  millions  that  have  read  and  spouted  this  thunder-speech  of 
the  Erdgeist,  are  there  yet  twenty  units  of  us  that  have  learned  the 
meaning  thereof?" 

"  It  was  in  some  such  mood,  when  wearied  and  foredone  with  these 
high  speculations,  that  I  first  came  upon  the  question  of  Clothes.  Strange 
enough,  it  strikes  me,  is  this  same  fact  of  there  being  Tailors  and  Tail- 
ored. The  Horse  I  ride  has  his  own  whole  fell :  strip  him  of  the  girths  and 
flaps  and  extraneous  tags  I  have  fastened  round  him,  and  the  noble 
creature  is  his  own  sempster  and  weaver  and  spinner :  nay  his  own  boot- 
maker, jeweller,  and  man-milliner;  he  bounds  free  through  the  valleys, 
with  a  perennial  rainproof  court-suit  on  his  body ;  wherein  warmth  and 
easiness  of  fit  have  reached  perfection ;  nay,  the  graces  also  have  been 
considered,  and  frills  and  fringes,  with  gay  variety  of  color,  featly  ap- 
pended, and  ever  in  the  right  place,  are  not  wanting.  While  I — good  . 
Heaven  ! — have  thatched  myself  over  with  the  dead  fleeces  of  sheep,  the 
bark  of  vegetables,  the  entrails  of  worms,  the  hides  of  oxen  or  seals,  the 
felt  of  furred  breasts ;  and  walk  abroad  a  moving  Rag-screen,  overheaped 
with  shreds  and  tatters  raked  from  the  Charnel-house  of  Nature,  where 
they  would  have  rotted,  to  rot  on  me  more  slowly !  Day  after  day,  I 
must  thatch  myself  anew;  day  after  day,  this  despicable  thatch  must 
lose  some  film  of  its  thickness  ;  some  film  of  it,  frayed  away  by  tear  and 
wear,  must  be  brushed  off  into  the  Ashpit,  into  the  Laystall ;  till  by  de- 
crees the  whole  has  been  brushed  thither,  and  I,  the  dust-making,  patent 
Rag-grinder,  get  new  material  to  grind  down.    O  subterbrutish  !  vile  f 


28 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


most  vile !  For  have  not  I  too  a  compact  all-enclosing  Skm,  whiter  or 
dingier'?  Am  I  a  botched  mass  of  tailors'  and  cobblers'  shreds,  then  ; 
or  a  tightly-articulated,  homogeneous  little  Figure,  automatic,  nay  alive  ? 

"  Strange  enough  how  creatures  of  the  human-kind  shut  their  eyes  to 
plainest  facts;  and  by  the  mere  inertia  of  Oblivion  and  Stupidity,  live 
at  ease  in  the  midst  of  Wonders  and  Terrors.  But  indeed  man  is  and 
was  always,  a  blockhead  and  dullard ;  much  readier  to  feel  and  digest, 
.  than  to  think  and  consider.  Prejudice,  which  he  pretends  to  hate,  is  his 
I  absolute  lawgiver;  mere  use-and-wont  everywhere  leads  him  by  the 
nose:  thus  let  but  a  Rising  of  the  Sun,  let  but  a  Creation  of  the  World 
happen  twice,  and  it  ceases  to  be  marvellous,  to  be  noteworthy,  or  notice- 
able. Perhaps  not  once  in  a  lifetime  does  it  occur  to  your  ordinary 
biped,  of  any  country  or  generation,  be  he  gold-mantled  Prince  or  rus- 
set-jerkined  Peasant,  that  his  Vestments  and  his  Self  are  not  one  and 
indivisible  ;  that  he  is  naked,  without  vestments,  till  he  buy  or  steal  such, 
and  by  forethought  sew  and  button  them. 

"  For  my  own  part,  these  considerations,  of  our  Clothes-thatch,  and 
how,  reaching  inwards  even  to  our  heart  of  hearts,  it  tailorises  and  de- 
moralises us,  fill  me  with  a  certain  horror  at  myself  and  mankind  ;  al- 
most as  one  feels  at  those  Dutch  Cows,  which,  during  the  wet  season, 
you  see  grazing  deliberately  with  jackets  and  petticoats  (of  striped  sack- 
ing), in  the  meadows  of  Gouda.  Nevertheless  there  is  something  great 
in  the  moment  when  a  man  first  strips  himself  of  adventitious  wrap- 
pages ;  and  sees  indeed  that  he  is  naked,  and,  as  Swift  has  it,  1  a  forked 
straddling  animal  with  bandy  legs;'  yet  also  a  Spirit,  and  unutterable 
Mystery  of  Mysteries." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ADAMITISM. 

Let  no  courteous  reader  take  offence  at  the  opinions  broached  in  the 
conclusion  of  the  last  Chapter.  The  Editor  himself,  on  first  glancing 
over  that  singular  passage,  was  inclined  to  exclaim :  What,  have  we 
got  not  only  a  Sansculottist,  but  an  enemy  to  Clothes  in  the  abstract  1 
A  new  Adamite,  in  this  century,  which  flatters  itself  that  it  is  the  Nine- 
teenth, and  des'tructive  both  to  Superstition  and  Enthusiasm'? 

Consider,  thou  foolish  Teufelsclrockh,  what  benefits  unspeakable  all 
ages  and  sexes  derive  from  Cloihes.  For  example,  when  thou  thyself, 
a  watery,  pulpy,  slobbery  freshman  and  new-comer  in  this  Planet,  sat- 
test  muling  and  puking  in  thy  nurse's  arms ;  sucking  thy  coral,  and 
looking  forth  into  the  world  in  the  blankest  manner,  what  hadst  thou 
been,  without  thy  blankets,  and  bibs,  and  other  nameless  hulls'?  A  ter- 
ror to  thyself  and  mankind !  Or  hast  thou  forgotten  the  day  when  thou 
first  receivedst  breeches,  and  thy  Jong  clothes  became  short  1  The  vil- 
lage where  thou  livedst  was  all' apprised  of  the  fact ;  and  neighbor  after 
neighbor  kissed  thy  pudding  cheek,  and  gave  thee,  as  handsel,  silver  or 
copper  coins,  on  that  the  first  gala-day  of  thy  existence.  Again,  wert 
not  thou,  at  one  period  of  life,  a  Buck,  or  Blood,  or  Macaroni,  or  In- 
croyable,  or  Dandy,  or  by  whatever  name,  according  to  year  and  place, 
such  phenomenon  is  distinguished  1  In  that  one  word  lie  included  mys- 
terious volumes.  Nay,  now  when  the  reign  of  folly  is  over,  or  altered, 
and  thy  clothes  are  not  for  triumph  but  for  defence,  hast  thou  always 
worn  them  perforce,  and  as  a  consequence  of  Man's  Fall ;  never  rejoiced 
in  them  as  in  a  warm  movable  House,  a  Body  round  thy  Body,  wherein 
that  strange  Thee  of  thine  sat  snug,  defying  all  variations  of  Climate  1 
Girt  with" thfclc  double-milled  kerseys;  half-buried  under  shawls  and 


AD  AUTISM. 


29 


broadbrims,  and  overalls  and  mudboots,  thy  very  fingers  cased  in  doe- 
skin and  mittens,  thou  hast  bestrode  that  "  Horse  1  ride;"  and,  though  it 
were  in  wild  winter,  dashed  through  the  world,  glorying  in  it  as  if  thou 
wert  its  lord.  In  vain  did  the  sleet  beat  round  thy  temples ;  it  lighted 
only  on  thy  impenetrable,  felted  or  woven,  case  of  wool.  In  vain  did 
the  winds  howl, — forests  sounding  and  creaking,  deep  calling  unto  deep, 
— and  the  storms  heap  themselves  together  into  one  huge  Arctic  whirl- 
pool :  thou  newest  through  the  middle  thereof,  striking  fire  from  the 
highway;  wild  music  hummed  in  thy  ears,  thou  too  wert  as  a  "  sailor  of 
ihe  air,"  the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crash  of  worlds  was  thy  element 
and  propitiously  wafting  tide.  Without  Clothes,  without  bit  or  saddle, 
what  hadst  thou  been ;  what  had  thy  fleet  quadruped  been  1 — Nature  is 
good,  but  she  is  not  the  best :  here  truly  was  the  victory  of  Art  over  Na- 
ture. A  thunderbolt  indeed  might  have  pierced  thee;  all  short  of  this 
thou  couldst  defy. 

Or,  cries  the  courteous  reader,  has  your  Teufelsdrockh  forgotten  what 
he  said  lately  about  "  Aboriginal  Savages,"  and  their  "  condition  mise- 
rable indeed  V  Would  he  have  all  this  unsaid;  and  us  betake  ourselves 
again  to  the  "  matted  cloak,"  and  go  sheeted  in  a  "  thick  natural  fell  V 

Nowise,  courteous  reader  !  The  Professor  knows  full  well  what  he 
is  saying ;  and  both  thou  and  we,  in  our  haste,  do  him  wrong.  If 
Clothes,  in  these  times,  "  so  tailorise  and  demoralise  us,"  have  they  no 
redeeming  value  ;  can  they  not  be  altered  to  serve  better;  must  they  of 
necessity  be  thrown  to  the  dogs  1  The  truth  is,  Teufelsdrockh,  though 
a  Sansculottist,  is  no  Adamite :  and  much,  perhaps,  as  he  might  wish  to 
go  forth  before  this  degenerate  age  "  as  a  Sign,"  wouM  nowise  wish  to 
do  it,  as  those  old  Adamites  did,  in  a  state  of  Nakedness.  The  utility 
of  Clothes  is  altogether  apparent  to  him :  nay,  perhaps  he  has  an  insight 
into  their  more  recondite,  and  almost  mystic  qualities,  what  we  might 
call  the  omnipotent  virtue  of  Clothes,  such  as  was  never  before  vouch- 
safed to  any  man.    For  example : 

"  You  see  two  individuals,"  he  writes,  "  one  dressed  in  fine  Red,  the 
other  in  coarse  threadbare  Blue :  Red  says  to  Blue,  '  Be  hanged  and 
anatomised ;'  Blue  hears  with  a  shudder,  and  (O  wonder  of  wonders  !) 
marches  sorrowfully  to  the  gallows ;  is  there  noosed  up,  vibrates  his 
hour,  and  the  surgeons  dissect  him,  and  fit  his  bones  into  a  skeleton  for 
medical  purposes.  How  is  this ;  or  what  make  ye  of  your  Nothing  can 
act  but  where  it  is  ?  Red  has  no  physical  hold  of  Blue,  no  clutch  of  him, 
is  nowise  in  contact  with  him :  neither  are  those  ministering  Sheriffs 
and  Lord-Lieutenants  and  Hangmen  and  Tipstaves  so  related  to  com- 
manding Red,  that  he  can  tug  them  hither  and  thither ;  but  each  stands 
distinct  within  his  own  skin.  Nevertheless,  as  it  is  spoken,  so  is  it 
done :  the  articulated  Word  sets  all  hands  in  Action ;  and  Rope  and 
Improved-drop  perform  their  work. 

"  Thinking  reader,  the  reason  seems  to  me  twofold ;  First,  that  Man 
is  a  Spirit,  and  bound  by  invisible  bonds  to  All  Men ;  Secondly,  that  he 
wears  Clothes,  which  are  the  visible  emblems  of  that  fact.  Has  not  your 
Red  hanging-individual  a  horsehair  wig,  squirrel  skins,  and  a  plush 
gown :  whereby  all  mortals  know  that  he  is  a  Judge  "X — Society,  which 
the  more  I  think  of  it  astonishes  me  the  more,  is  founded  upon  Cloth. 

"  Often  in  my  atrabiliar  moods,  when  I  read  of  pompous  ceremonials, 
Frankfort  Coronations,  Royal  Drawing-rooms,  Levees,  Couchees ;  and 
how  the  ushers  and  macers  and  pursuivants  are  all  in  waiting ;  how 
Duke  this  is  presented  by  Archduke  that,  and  Colonel  A  by  General  B, 
and  innumerable  Bishops,  Admirals,  and  miscellaneous  Functionaries, 
are  advancing  gallantly  to  the  Anointed  Presence;  and  I  strive,  in  my 
remote  privacy,  to  form  a  clear  picture  of  that  solemnity, — on  a  sudden, 
as  by  some  enchanter's  wand,  the — shall  I  speak  it  1 — the  Clothes  fly  off 


30 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


the  whole  dramatic  corps ;  and  Dukes,  Grandees,  Bishops,  Generals, 
Anointed  Presence  itself,  every  mother's  son  of  them,  stand  straddling 
there,  not  a  shirt  on  them  ;  and  I  know  not  whether  to  laugh  or  weep. 
This  physical  or  psychical  infirmity,  in  which  perhaps  I  am  not  singu- 
lar, I  have,  after  hesitation,  thought  right  to  publish,  for  the  solace  of 
those  afflicted  with  the  like." 

Would  to  Heaven,  say  we,  thou  hadst  thought  right  to  keep  it  secret ! 
Who  is  there  now  that  can  read  the  five  columns  of  Presentations  in  his 
Morning  Newspaper  without  a  shudder]  Hypochondriac  men,  and  all 
men  are  to  a  certain  extent  hypochondriac,  should  be  more  gently  treated. 
With  what  readiness  our  fancy,  in  this  shattered  state  of  the  nerves,  fol- 
lows out  the  consequences  which  Teufelsdrockh,  with  a  devilish  cool- 
ness, goes  on  to  draw  : 

"  What  would  Majesty  do,  could  such  an  accident  befall  in  reality; 
should  the  buttons  all  simultaneously  start,  and  the  solid  wool  evaporate, 
in  very  Deed,  as  here  in  Dream  1  Ach  Golt !  How  each  skulks  into 
the  nearest  hiding-place;  their  high  State  Tragedy  (Haupt-und  Staats- 
Action)  becomes  a  Pickleherring-Farce  to  weep  at,  which  is  the  worst 
kind  of  Farce ;  the  tables  (according  to  Horace),  and  with  them,  the 
whole  fabric  of  Government,  Legislation,  Property,  Police,  and  Civil- 
ized Society,  are  dissolved,  in  wails  and  howls." 

Lives  the  man  that  can  figure  a  naked  Duke  of  Windlestraw  address- 
ing a  naked  House  of  Lords'?  Imagination,  choked  as  in  Mephitic  air, 
recoils  on  itself,  and  will  not  forward  with  the  picture.  The  Woolsack, 
the  Ministerial,  the  Opposition  Benches — infandum!  infandum!  And 
yet  why  is  the  thAg  impossible  1  Was  not  every  soul,  or  rather  every 
body,  of  these  Guardians  of  our  Liberties,  naked,  or  nearly  so,  last 
night ;  "a  forked  Radish  with  a  head  fantastically  carved  V  And  why 
might  he  not,  did  our  stern  Fate  so  order  it,  walk  out  to  St.  Stephen's,  as 
well  as  into  bed,  in  that  no-fashion ;  and  there,  with  other  similar  Ra- 
dishes, hold  a  Bed  of  Justice1]  "Solace  those  afflicted  with  the  like  !" 
Unhappy  Teufelsdrockh,  had  man  ever  such  a  "physical  or  psychical 
infirmity"  before  ]  And  now  how  many,  perhaps,  may  thy  unparalleled 
confession  (which  we,  even  to  the  sounder  British  world,  and  goaded  on 
by  Critical  and  Biographical  duty,  grudge  to  re-impart)  incurably 
infect  therewith  !  Art  thou  the  malignest  of  Sansculottists,  or  only  the 
maddest  1 

"It  will  remain  to  be  examined,"  adds  the  inexorable  Teufelsdrockh, 
"  in  how  far  the  Scarecrow,  as  a  Clothed  Person,  is  not  also  entitled  to 
benefit  of  clergy,  and  English  trial  by  jury:  nay,  perhaps,  considering 
his  high  function  (for  is  not  he  too  a  Defender  of  Property,  and  Sove- 
reign armed  with  the  terrors  of  the  Law]),  to  a  certain  ro)ral  Immunity 
and  Inviolability ;  which,  however,  misers  and  the  meaner  class  of  per- 
sons are  not  always  voluntarily  disposed  to  grant  him."         *  * 

*  *  "  O  my  Friends,  we  are  (in  Yorick  Sterne's  words)  but  as 
"  turkeys  driven,  with  a  stick  and  red  clout,  to  the  market :"  or  if  some 
drivers,  as  they  do  in  Norfolk,  take  a  dried  bladder  and  put  peas  in  it,  the 
rattle  thereof  terrifies  the  boldest ! " 


CHAPTER  X. 

PURE  REASON. 

It  must  now  be  apparent  enough  that  our  Professor,  as  above  hinted, 
is  a  speculative  Radical,  and  of  the  very  darkest  tinge ;  acknowledging, 
for  most  part,  in  the  solemnities  and  paraphernalia  of  civilized  Life, 
which  we  make  so  much  of,  nothing  but  so  many  Cloth-rags,  turkey- 


PURE  REASON. 


31 


poles,  and  "  Bladders  with  dried  Peas."  To  linger  amonp;  such  specula- 
tions, longer  than  mere  Science  requires,  a  discerning  public  can  have  no 
wish.  For  our  purposes  the  simple  fact  that  such  a  Naked  World  is 
possible,  nay,  actually  exists  (under  the  Clothed  one),  will  be  sufficient. 
Much,  therefore,  we  omit  about  "  Kings  wrestling  naked  on  the  green 
with  Carmen,"  and  the  Kings  being  thrown:  "dissect  them  with  scal- 
pels," says  Teufelsdrockh  ;  "  the  same  viscera,  tissues,  livers,  lights,  and 
other  Life-tackle  are  there :  examine  their  spiritual  mechanism  ;  the 
same  great  Need,  great  Greed,  and  little  Faculty  ;  nay,  ten  to  one  but  the 
Carman  who  understands  draught-cattle,  the  rimming  of  wheels,  some- 
thing of  the  laws  of  unstable  and  stable  equilibrium,  with  other  branches 
of  waggon-science,  and  has  actually  put  forth  his  hand  and  operated  on 
Nature,  is  the  more  cunningly  gifted  of  the  two.  Whence,  then,  their 
so  unspeakable  difference  1  From  Clothes."  Much  also  we  shall  omit 
about  confusion  of  Ranks,  and  Joan  and  My  Lady,  and  how  it  would 
be  everywhere  "Hail  fellow  well  met,"  and  Chaos  were  come  again:  all 
which  to  anyone  that  has  once  fairly  pictured  out  the  grand  mother-idea, 
Society  in  a  State  of  Nakedness,  will  spontaneously  suggest  itself.  Should 
some  sceptical  individual  still  entertain  doubts  whether  in  a  World 
without  Clothes,  the  smallest  Politeness,  Polity,  or  even  Police,  could 
exist,  let  him  turn  to  the  original  Volume,  and  view  there  the  boundless 
Serbonian  Bogs  of  Sansculottism,  stretching  sour  and  pestilential:  over 
which  we  have  lightly  flown  ;  where  not  only  whole  armies  but  whole 
nations  might  sink !  If  indeed  the  following  argument,  in  its  brief 
ri vetting  emphasis,  be  not  of  itself  incontrovertible  and  final : 

"  Are  we  Opossums ;  have  we  natural  Pouches,  like  the  Kangaroo  1 
Or  how,  without  Clothes,  could  we  possess  the  master-organ,  soul's-seat, 
and  true  pineal  gland  of  the  Body  Social :  I  mean,  a  Purse  V1 

Nevertheless,  it  is  impossible  to  hate  Professor  Teufelsdrockh ;  at  worst, 
one  knows  not  whether  to  hate  or  to  love  him.  For  though  in  looking 
a.t  the  fair  tapestry  of  human  Life,  with  its  royal  and  even  sacred  figures, 
he  dwells  not  on  the  obverse  alone,  but  here  chiefly  on  the  reverse  ;  and 
indeed  turns  out  the  rough  seams,  tatters,  and  manifold  thrums  of  that 
unsightly  wrong-side,  with  an  almost  diabolic  patience  and  indifference, 
which  must  have  sunk  him  in  the  estimation  of  most  readers, — there  is 
that  within  which  unspeakably  distinguishes  him  from  all  other  past 
and  present  Sansculottists.  The  grand  unparalleled  peculiarity  of  Teu- 
felsdrockh is,  that  with  all  his  Descendentalism,  he  combines  a  Trans- 
cendentalism no  less  superlative  ;  whereby  if  on  the  one  hand  he  degrade 
man  below  most  animals,  except  those  jacketted  Gouda  Cows,  he,  on  the 
other,  exalts  him  beyond  the  visible  Heavens,  almost  to  an  equality  with 
the  gods. 

"  To  the  eye  of  vulgar  Logic,"  says  he,  "  what  is  man  1    An  omni- 
vorous Biped  that  wears  Breeches.    To  the  eye  of  Pure  Reason  what  is 
he  ?    A  Soul,  a  Spirit,  and  divine  Apparition.    Round  his  mysterious 
Me,  there  lies,  under  all  those  wool-rags,  a  Garment  of  Flesh  (or  of  Sen- 1 
ses),  contextured  in  the  Loom  of  Heaven ;  whereby  he  is  revealed  to  ] 
his  like,  and  dwells  with  them  in  Union  and  Division  ;  and  sees  and  t 
fashions  for  himself  a  Universe,  with  azure  Starry  Spaces,  and  long> 
Thousands  of  Years.    Deep-hidden  is  he  under  that  strange  Garment ;! 
amid  Sounds  and  Colors  and  Forms,  as  it  were,  swathed  in,  and  inextri-  i 
cably  overshrouded:  yet  it  is  skywoven,  and  worthy  of  a  God.  Stands 
he  not  thereby  in  the  centre  of  Immensities,  in  the  conflux  of  Eternities  T\ 
He  feels;  power  has  been  given  him  to  Know,  to  Believe;  nay  does 
not  the  spirit  of  Love,  free  in  its  celestial  primeval  brightness,  even  here,:, 
though  but  for  moments,  look  through?    Well  said  Saint  Chrysostom, 
with  his  lips  of  gold,  1  the  true  Shekinah  is  Man :'  where  else  is  the 


3-2 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


God's-Presence  manifested  not  to  our  eyes  only,  but  to  our  hearts,  as  in 
our  fellow  manl" 

In  such  passages,  unhappily  too  rare,  the  high  Platonic  Mysticism  of 
our  Author,  which  is  perhaps  the  fundamental  element  of  "his  nature, 
bursts  forth,  as  it  were,  in  full  flood:  and,  through  all  the  vapor  and 
tarnish  of  what  is  often  so  perverse,  so  mean  in  his  exterior  and  environ- 
ment, we  seem  to  look  into  a  whole  inward  Sea  of  Light  and  Love ; — 
though,  alas,  the  grim  coppery  clouds  soon  roll  together  again,  and  hide 
it  from  view. 

Such  tendency  to  Mysticism  is  everywhere  traceable  in  this  man;  and 
indeed,  to  attentive  readers,  must  have  been  long  ago  apparent.  Noth- 
ing that  he  sees  but  has  more  than  a  common  meaning,  but  has  two 
meanings :  thus,  if  in  the  highest  Imperial  Sceptre  and  Charlemagne- 
Mantle,  as  well  as  in  the  poorest  Ox-goad  and  Gipsy-Blanket,  he  finds 
Prose,  Decay,  Contemptibility ;  there  is  in  each  sort  Poetry  also,  and  a 
reverend  Worth.  For  Matter,  were  it  never  so  despicable,  is  Spirit,  the 
manifestation  of  Spirit :  were  it  never  so  honorable,  can  it  be  more ! 
The  thing  Visible,  nay  the  thing  Imagined,  the  thing  in  any  way  con- 
ceived as  Visible,  what  is  it  but  a  Garment,  a  Clothing  of  the  higher, 
celestial  Invisible,  "unimaginable,  formless,  dark  with  excess  of  bright  V 
Under  which  point  of  view  the  following  passage,  so  strange  in  purport, 
so  strange  in  phrase,  seems  characteristic  enough  : 

"  The  beginning  of  all  Wisdom  is  to  look  fixedly  on  Clothes,  or  even 
with  armed  eyesight,  till  they  become  transparent.  1  The  Philosopher,' 
says  the  wisest  of  this  age,  '  must  station  himself  in  the  middle :'  how 
i rue  !  The  Philosopher  is  he  to  whom  the  Highest  has  descended,  and 
ihe  Lowest  has  mounted  up;  who  is  the  equal  and  kindly  brother  of  all. 

"  Shall  we  tremble  before  clothwebs  and  cobwebs,  whether  woven  in 
Arkwright  looms,  or  by  the  silent  Arachnes  that  weave  unrestingly  in 
our  Imagination  1  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  what  is  there  that  we  cannot 
love ;  since  all  was  created  by  God  1 

"  Happy  he  wrho  can  look  through  the  Clothes  of  a  Man  (the  woollen, 
and  fleshly,  and  official  Bank-paper  and  State-paper  Clothes),  into  the 
Man  himself;  and  discern,  it  may  be,  in  this  or  the  other  Dread  Poten- 
tate, a  more  or  less  incompetent  Digestive-apparatus ;  yet  also  an  in- 
scrutable venerable  Mystery,  in  the  meanest  Tinker  that  sees  with  eyes!" 

For  the  rest,  as  is  natural  to  a  man  of  this  kind,  he  deals  much  in  the 
feeling  of  Wonder ;  insists  on  the  necessity  and  high  worth  of  univer- 
sal Wonder;  which  he  holds  to  be  the  only  reasonable  temper  for  the 
denizen  of  so  singular  a  Planet  as  ours.  "  Wonder,"  says  he,  "  is  the 
basis  of  Worship :  the  reign  of  wonder  is  perennial,  indestructible  in 
Man  ;  only  at  certain  stages  (as  the  present),  it  is,  for  some  short  season, 
a  reign  in  partibus  infidelium.'  That  progress  of  Science,  wThich  is  to 
destroy  Wonder,  and  in  its  stead  substitute  Mensuration  and  Numera- 
tion, finds  small  favor  with  Teufelsdrockh,  much  as  he  otherwise  vene- 
rates these  two  latter  processes. 

{:  Shall  your  Science,"  exclaims  he,  "  proceed  in  the  small  chink-light- 
ed, or  even  oil-lighted,  underground  workshop  of  Logic  alone;  and 
man's  mind  become  an  Arithmetical  Mill,  whereof  Memory  is  the  Hop- 
per, and  mere  Tables  of  Sines  and  Tangents,  Codification,  and  Trea- 
tises of  what  you  call  Political  Economy,  are  the  Meal  ?  And  what  is 
that  Science,  which  the  scientific  head  alone,  were  it  screwed  off,  and 
(like  the  Doctor's  in  the  Arabian  Tale)  set  in  a  basin,  to  keep  it  alive, 
could  prosecute  without  shadow  of  a  heart, — but  one  other  of  the  mecha- 
nical and  menial  handicrafts,  for  which  the  Scientific  Head  (having  a 
Soul  in  it)  is  too  noble  an  organ  1  I  mean  that  Thought  without  Rever- 
ence is  barren,  perhaps  poisonous;  at  best,  dies  like  Cookery  with  the 
lay  that  called  it  forth;  does  not  live,  like  sowing,  in  successive  tilths 


PROSPECTIVE. 


33 


and  wider-spreading  harvests,  bringing  food  and  plenteous  increase  to 
all  Time." 

In  such  wise  does  Teufelsdrbckh  deal  hits,  harder  or  softer  according 
to  ability;  yet  ever,  as  we  would  fain  persuade  ourselves,  with  charita- 
ble intent.  Above  all,  that  class  of  "  Logic-choppers,  and  treble-pipe 
Scoffers,  and  professed  Enemies  to  Wonder;  who,  in  these  days,  so  nu- 
merously patrol  as  night-constables  about  the  Mechanics'  Institute  of 
Science,  and  cackle,  like  true  Old  Roman  geese  and  goslings  round 
their  Capitol,  on  any  alarm,  or  on  none ;  nay  who  often,  as  illuminated 
Sceptics,  walk  abroad  into  peaceable  society,  in  full  daylight,  with  rattle 
and  lantern,  and  insist  on  guiding  you  and  guarding  you  therewith, 
though  the  Sun  is  shining,  and  the  street  populous  with  mere  justice- 
loving  men  :"  that  whole  class  is  inexpressibly  wearisome  to  him.  Hear 
with  what  uncommon  animation  he  perorates : 

"  The  man  who  cannot  wonder,  who  does  not  habitually  wonder  (and 
worship),  were  he  President  of  innumerable  Royal  Societies,  and  car- 
ried the  whole  Mecaniquc  Celeste  and  HegeVs  Philosophy ,  and  the  epi- 
tome of  all  Laboratories  and  Observatories  with  their  results,  in  his  sin- 
gle head, — is  but  a  Pair  of  Spectacles  behind  which  there  is  no  Eye.  Let 
those  who  have  Eyes  look  through  him,  then  he  may  be  useful. 

"  Thou  wilt  have  no  Mystery  and  Mysticism ;  wilt  walk  through  thy 
world  by  the  sunshine  of  what  thou  callest  Truth,  or  even  by  the  Hand- 
lamp  of  what  I  call  Attorney  Logic;  and  'explain'  all,  'account'  for  all, 
or  believe  nothing  of  it  1  Nay,  thou  wilt  attempt  laughter ;  whoso  re- 
cognizes the  unfathomable,  all-pervading  domain  of  Mystery,  which  is 
everywhere  under  our  feet  and  among  our  hands ;  to  whom  the  Universe 
is  an  Oracle  and  Temple,  as  well  as  a  Kitchen  and  Cattle-stall, — he 
shall  be  a  (delirious)  Mystic ;  to  him  thou,  with  sniffing  charity,  wilt 
protrusively  proffer  thy  Handlamp,  and  shriek,  as  one  injured,  when  he 
kicks  his  foot  through  if? — Armer  Teufell  Doth  not  thy  Cow  calve, 
doth  not  thy  Bull  gender  1  Thou  thyself,  wert  thou  not  Born,  wilt  thou 
not  Die  1  1  Explain'  me  all  this,  or  do  one  of  two  things :  Retire  into 
private  places  with  thy  foolish  cackle  ;  or,  what  were  better,  give  it  up, 
and  weep,  not  that  the  reign  of  wonder  is  done,  and  God's  world  all  dis- 
embellished  and  prosaic,  but  that  thou  hitherto  art  a  Dilettante  and  sand- 
blind  Pedant." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

PROSPECTIVE. 

The  Philosophy  of  Clothes  is  now  to  all  readers,  as  we  predicted  it 
would  do,  unfolding  itself  into  new  boundless  expansions,  of  a  cloud- 
capt,  almost  chimerical  aspect,  yet  not  without  azure  loomings  in  the  far 
distance,  and  streaks  as  of  an  Elysian  brightness;  the  highly  questiona- 
ble purport  and  promise  of  which  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  import  - 
ant for  us  to  ascertain.  Is  that  a  real  Elysian  brightness,  cries  many  a 
timid  wayfarer,  or  the  reflex  of  Pandemonian  lava  1  Is  it  of  a  truth 
leading  us  into  beatific  Asphodel  meadows,  or  the  yellow-burning  marl 
of  a  Hell-on-Earth  1 

Our  Professor,  like  other  Mystics,  whether  delirious  or  inspired,  gives 
an  Editor  enough  to  do.  Ever  higher  and  dizzier  are  the  heights  he 
leads  us'to;  more  piercing,  all-comprehending,  all-confounding  are  his 
views  and  glances.  For  example,  this  of  Nature  being  not  an  Aggre- 
gate but  a  whole : 

"  Well  sang  the  Hebrew  Psalmist :  '  If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morn- 
ing and  dwell  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  universe,  God  is  there. 


3* 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


Thou  loo,  O  cultivated  reader,  who  too  probably  art  no  Psalmist,  but  a 
Prosaist,  knowing  God  only  by  tradition,  knowest  thou  any  corner  of 
the  world  where  at  least  Force  is  not?  The  drop  which  thou  shakest 
from  thy  wet  hand,  rests  not  where  it  falls,  but  to-morrow  thou  findest  it 
swept  away;  already,  on  the  wings  of  the  Northwind,  it  is  nearing  the 
Tropic  of  Cancer.  How  came  it  to  evaporate,  and  not  lie  motionless  ? 
Thinkest  thou  there  is  aught  motionless;  without  Force,  and  utterly 
dead  % 

"  As  I  rode  through  the  Schwarzwald,  I  said  to  myself:  That  little 
fire  which  glows  star-like  across  the  dark-growing  (nachtende)  moor, 
where  the  sooty  smith  bends  over  his  anvil,  and  thou  hopest  to  replace 
thy  lost  horse-shoe, — is  it  a  detached,  separated  speck,  cut  off  from  the 
whole  Universe  ;  or  indissolubly  joined  to  the  whole  1  Thou  fool,  that 
smithy-fire  was  (primarily)  kindled  at  the  Sun  ;  is  fed  by  air  that  circu- 
lates from  before  Noah's  Deluge,  from  beyond  the  Dogstar;  therein,  with 
Iron  Force  and  Coal  Force,  and  the  far  stronger  Force  of  Man,  are  cun- 
ning affinities  and  battles  and  victories  of  Force  brought  about:  it  is  a 
little  ganglion,  or  nervous  centre,  in  the  great  vital  system  of  Immensity. 
Call  it,  if  thou  wilt,  an  unconscious  Altar,  kindled  on  the  bosom  of  the 
All ;  whose  iron  sacrifice,  whose  iron  smoke  and  influence  reach  quite 
through  the  All;  whose  Dingy  Priest,  not  by  word,  yet  by  brain  and 
sinew,  preaches  forth  the  mystery  of  Force  ;  nay,  preaches  forth  (exote- 
rical  enough)  one  little  textlet  from  the  Gospel  of  Freedom,  the  Gospel 
of  Man's  Force,  commanding,  and  one  day  to  be  all-commanding. 

"  Detached,  separated !  I  say  there  is  no  such  separation  :  nothing 
hitherto  was  ever  stranded,  cast  aside ;  but  all,  were  it  only  a  withered 
leaf,  works  together  with  all ;  is  borne  forward  on  the  bottomless,  shore- 
less flood  of  Action,  and  lives  through  perpetual  metamorphoses.  The 
withered  leaf  is  not  dead  and  lost,  there  are  Forces  in  it  and  around  it, 
though  working  in  inverse  order ;  else  how  could  it  rot  ?  Despise  not 
the  rag  from  which  man  makes  Paper,  or  the  litter  from  which  the 
Earth  makes  Corn.  Rightly  viewed  no  meanest  object  is  insignificant  j 
all  objects  are  as  windows,  through  which  the  philosophic  eye  looks  in!<> 
Infinitude  itself." 

Again,  leaving  that  wondrous  Schwarzwald  Smithy- Altar,  what 
vacant,  high-sailing  air-ships  are  these,  and  whither  will  they  sail 
with  us  1 

"  All  visible  things  are  Emblems ;  what  thou  seest  is  not  there  on  its 
own  account ;  strictly  taken,  is  not  there  at  all :  Matter  exists  only  spi- 
ritually, and  to  represent  some  Idea,  and  body  it  forth.  Hence  Clothes, 
as  despicable  as  we  think  them,  are  so  unspeakably  significant.  Clothes, 
from  the  King's  mantle  downwards,  are  emblematic,  not  of  want  only, 
but  of  a  manifold  cunning  Victory  over  Want.  On  the  other  hand,  all 
emblematic  things  are  properly  Clothes,  thought- woven  or  hand-woven  : 
mast  not  the  Imagination  weave  Garments,  visible  Bodies,  wherein  the 
else  invisible  creations  and  inspirations  of  our  Reason  are,  like  Spirits, 
revealed,  and  first  become  all-powerful ; — the  rather  if,  as  we  often  see, 
the  Hand,  too,  aid  her,  and  (by  wool  Clothes  or  otherwise)  reveal  such 
even  to  the  outward  eye  1 

"  Men  are  properly  said  to  be  clothed  with  Authority,  clothed  with 
Beauty,  with  Curses,  and  the  like.  Nay,  if  you  consider  it,  what  is 
Man  himself,  and  his  whole  terrestrial  Life,  but  an  Emblem ;  a  Clothing 
or  visible  Garment  for  that  divine  Me  of  his,  cast  hither,  like  a  light- 
particle,  down  from  Heaven  1  Thus  is  he  said  also  to  be  clothed  with 
a  Body. 

"  Language  is  called  the  Garment  of  Thought:  however,  it  should 
rather  be,  Language  is  the  Flesh-Garment,  the  Body,  of  Thought.  I 
said  that  Imagination  wove  this  Flesh-Garment;  and  does  she  not? 

/ 


PROSPECTIVE. 


35 


Metaphors  are  her  stuff:  examine  Language  ;  what,  if  you  except  tame 
few  primitive  elements  (of  natural  sound),  what  is  it  all  bui  MetaphofS, 
recognized  as  such,  or  no  longer  recognized;  still  fluid  and  florid,  01 
now  solid-grown  and  colorless  I  If  those  same  primitive  element-,  arc 
the  osseous  fixtures  in  the  Flesh-Garment,  Language, — then  are  Meta- 
phors its  muscles  and  tissues  and  living  integuments.  An  unmetaphor- 
ical  style  you  shall  in  vain  seek  for :  is  not  your  very  Attention  a  Stretch- 
ing-to  ?  The  difference  lies  here  :  some  styles  are  lean,  adust,  wiry,  the 
muscle  itself  seems  osseous  :  some  are  even  quite  pallid,  hunger-bitten, 
and  dead-looking ;  while  others  again  glow  in  the  flush  of  health  and 
vigorous  self-growth,  sometimes  (as  in  my  own  case)  not  without  an 
apoplectic  tendency.  Moreover,  there  are  sham  Metaphors,  which  over- 
hanging that  same  Thought's  Body  (best  naked),  and  deceptively  bedi- 
zening, or  bolstering  it  out,  may  be  called  its  false  stuffings,  superfluous 
show-cloaks  (Putz-Miintel),  and  tavrdry  woollen  rags :  whereof  he  that  • 
runs  and  reads  may  gather  whole  hampers, — and  burn  them." 

Than  which  paragraph  on  Metaphors  did  the  reader  ever  chance  to 
see  a  more  surprisingly  metaphorical  1  However,  that  is  not  our  chief 
grievance  ;  the  Professor  continues: 

"  Why  multiply  instances  1  It  is  written,  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth 
shall  fade  away  like  a  Vesture ;  which  indeed  they  are :  the  Time- 
vesture  of  the  Eternal.  Whatsoever  sensibly  exists,  whatsoever  repre- 
sents Spirit  to  Spirit,  is  properly  a  Clothing,  a  suit  of  Raiment,  put  on 
lor  a  season,  and  to  be  laid  off.  Thus  in  this  one  pregnant  subject  of ; 
Clothes,  rightly  understood,  is  included  all  that  men  have  thought, 
dreamed,  done,  and  been:  the  whole  External  Universe  and  what  it 
holds  is  but  Clothing ;  and  the  essence  of  all  Science  lies  in  the  Philo- 
sophy op  Clothes." 

Towards  these  dim  infinitely-expanded  regions,  close-bordering  on 
the  impalpable  Inane,  it  is  not  without  apprehension,  and  perpetual  dif- 
ficulties, that  the  Editor  sees  himself  journeying  and  struggling.  Till 
lately  a  cheerful  daystar  of  hope  hung  before  him,  in  the  expected  Aid 
of  Hofrath  Heuschrecke  ;  which  daystar,  however,  melts  now,  not  into 
the  red  of  morning,  but  into  a  vague,  grey  half-light,  uncertain  whether 
dawn  of  day  or  dusk  of  utter  darkness.  For  the  last  week,  these  so- 
called  Biographical  Documents  are  in  his  hand.  By  the  kindness  of  a 
Scottish  Hamburgh  Merchant,  whose  name,  known  to  the  whole  mer- 
cantile world,  he  must  not  mention  ;  but  whose  honorable  courtesy,  now 
and  often  before  spontaneously  manifested  to  him,  a  mere  literary  stran- 
ger, he  cannot  soon  forget, — the  bulky  Weissnichtwo  Packet,  with  aii 
its  Customhouse  seals,  foreign  hieroglyphs,  and  miscellaneous  tokens  of 
Travel,  arrived  here  in  perfect  safety,  and  free  of  cost.  The  reader 
shall  now  fancy  with  what  hot  haste  it  was  broken  up,  with  what  breath 
less  expectation  glanced  over ;  and,  alas,  with  what  unquiet  disappoint- 
ment it  has,  since  then,  been  often  thrown  down,  and  again  taken  up. 

Hofrath  Heuschrecke,  in  a  too  long-winded  Letter,  full  of  compliments, 
Weissnichtwo  politics,  dining  repartees,  and  other  ephemeral  trivialities, 
proceeds  to  remind  us  of  what  we  knew  well  already  :  that  however  it 
may  be  with  Metaphysics,  and  other  abstract  Science  originating  in  the 
Head  (  Verstand)  alone,  no  Life-Philosophy  (Lcbcnsphilosophic),  such  as 
this  of  Clothes  pretends  to  be,  which  originates  equally  in  the  Character 
(Gemiith),  and  equally  speaks  thereto,  can  attain  its  significance  till  the 
Character  itself  is  known  and  seen ;  "  till  the  Author's  View  of  the 
World  (Weltansicht),  and  how  he  actively  and  passively  came  by  such 
view,  are  clear:  in  short  till  a  Biography  of  him  has  been  philosophico- 
poetically  written,  and  philosophico-poetically  read."  Nay,  adds  he, 
"  were  the  speculative  scientific  Truth  even  "known,  you  still,  in  this 
inquiring  age,  ask  yourself.  Whence  came  it,  and  Why,,  and  How?— 


36 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


and  resl  not,  till,  if  no  better  may  be,  Fancy  have  shaped  oul  an  answer ; 
and  either  in  the  authentic  lineaments  of  Fact,  or  the  forged  ones  of 
Fiction,  a  complete  picture  and  Genetical  History  of  the  Man  and  his 
spiritual  Endeavor  lies  before  you.  But  why,"  says  the  Hofrath,  and 
indeed  say  we,  "do  I  dilate  on  the  uses  of  oar  Teufelsdrockh's  Biogra- 
phy 1  The  great  Herr  Minister  von  Goethe  has  penetratingly  remarked 
that  1  Man  is  properly  the  only  object  that  interests  man  :'  thus  I  too  have 
noted,  that  in  Weissnichtwo  our  whole  conversation  is  little  or  nothing 
else  but  Biography  or  Autobiography ;  ever  humano-anecdotical  (men- 
zchlich-anccdoLisch).  Biography  is  by  nature  the  most  universally  profit- 
able, universally  pleasant  of  all  things  :  especially  Biography  of  distin- 
guished individuals. 

"  By  this  time,  mein  Verchrtester  (  my  Most  Esteemed),"  continues  he, 
•with  an  eloquence  which,  unless  the  words  be  purloined  from  Teufels- 
drockh,  or  some  trick  of  his,  as  we  suspect,  is  well  nigh  unaccountable, 
"  by  this  time  you  are  fairly  plunged  {xerticft)  in  that  mighty  forest  of 
Clothes-Philosophy;  and  looking  round,  as  all  readers  do,  with  astonish- 
ment enough.  Such  portions  and  passages  as  you  have  already  mas- 
tered, and  brought  to  paper,  could  not  but  awaken  a  strange  curiosity 
touching  the  mind  they  issued  from  ;  the  perhaps  unparalleled  psychical 
mechanism,  which  manufactured  such  matter,  and  emitted  it  to  the  light 
of  day.  Had  Teufelsdrockh  also  a  father  and  mother ;  did  he,  at  one 
time,  wear  drivel-bibs,  and  live  on  spoon-meat  1  Did  he  ever,  in  rap- 
ture and  tears,  clasp  a  friend's  bosom  to  his  ;  looks  he  also  wistfully  into 
the  long  burial-aisle  of  the  Past,  where  only  winds,  and  their  low  harsh 
moan,  give  inarticulate  answer  ?  Has  he  fought  duels ; — good  Heaven  ! 
how  did  he  comport  himself  when  in  Love?  By  what  singular  stair- 
steps, in  short,  and  subterranean  passages,  and  sloughs  of  Despair,  and 
steep  Pisgah  hills,  has  he  reached  this  wonderful  prophetic  Hebron  (a 
true  Old-Clothes  Jewry)  where  he  now  dwells  ? 

"  To  all  these  natural  questions  the  voice  of  public  History  is  as  yet 
silent.  Certain  only  that  he  has  been,  and  is,  a  Pilgrim,  and  Traveller 
from  a  far  Country;  more  or  less  footsore  and  travel-soiled;  has  parted 
with  road-companions ;  fallen  among  thieves,  been  poisoned  by  bad  cook- 
ery, blistered  with  bugbites ;  nevertheless,  at  every  stage  (for  they  have 
lei  him  pass),  has  had  the  Bill  to  discharge.  But  the  whole  particulars 
of  his  Route,  his  Weather-observations,  the  picturesque  Sketches  he 
took,  though  all  regularly  jotted  down  (indelible  sympathetic-ink  by  an 
invisible  interior  Penman),  are  these  nowhere  forthcoming  1  Perhaps 
quite  lost:  one  other  leaf  of  that  mighty  Volume  (of  human  Memory) 
eft  to  fly  abroad,  unprinted,  unpublished,  unbound  up,  as  waste  paper ; 
and  rot,  the  sport  of  rainy  wind's  1 

"  No,  verchrksler  Herr  Herausgebcr,  in  no  wise !  1  here,  by  the  unex- 
ampled favor  you  stand  in  with  our  Sage,  send  not  a  Biography  only, 
but  an  Autobiography  :  at  least  the  materials  for  such ;  wherefrom  if  I 
misreckon  not,  your  perspicacity  will  draw  fullest  insight;  and  so  the 
whole  Philosophy  and  Philosopher  of  Clothes  stands  clear  to  the  won- 
dering eyes  of  England,  nay,  thence,  through  America,  through  Hin- 
dostan,  and  the  antipodal  New  Holland,  finally  conquer  (cinnehmcn)  great 
part  of  this  terrestrial  Planet !" 

And  now  let  the  sympathising  reader  judge  of  our  feeling  when,  in 
place  of  this  same  Autobiography  with  "fullest  insight,"  we  find — Six 
considerable  Papkr-bags,  carefully  sealed,  and  marked  successively,  in 
giltChina-ink,with  the  symbols  of  the  Six  southern  Zodiacal  Signs,  begin- 
ning at  Libra ;  in  the  inside  of  which  sealed  Bags  lie  miscellaneous 
jnasses  of  Sheets,  and  oflener  Shreds  and  Snips,  written  in  Professor 
.Teufelsdrockh's  scarce  legible  cursiv-schrifl ;  and  treating  of  all  ima- 

/ 


PROSPECTIVE. 


37 


finable  things  under  the  Zodiac,  and  above  il,  but  of  his  own  personal 
history  only  at  rare  intervals,  and  then  in  the  most  enigmatic  manner! 

Whole  fascicles  there  are,  wherein  the  Professor,  or  as  he  here  speak- 
ing in  the  third  person  calls  himself,  "the  Wanderer,"  is  not  once 
named.  Then  again,  amidst  what  seems  to  be  a  Metaphysico-theological 
Disquisition,  "  Detached  Thoughts  on  the  Steam-engine,"  or,  "  The 
continued  Possibility  of  Prophecy,"  we  shall  meet  with  some  quite  pri- 
vate, not  unimportant  Biographical  fact.  On  certain  sheets  stand 
Dreams,  authentic  or  not,  while  the  circumjacent  waking  Actions  are 
omitted.  Anecdotes,  oftenest  without  date  of  place  or  time,  fly  loosely 
on  separate  slips,  like  Sibylline  leaves.  Interspersed  also  are  long  purely 
Autobiographical  delineations,  yet  without  connection ,  without  recogniz- 
able coherence ;  so  unimportant,  so  superfluously  minute,  they  almost 
remind  us  of  "  P.  P.  Clerk  of  this  Parish."  Thus  does  famine  of  intel- 
ligence alternate  with  waste.  Selection,  order  appears  to  be  unknown 
to  the  Professor.  In  all  Bags  the  same  imbroglio ;  only  perhaps  in  the 
Bag  Capricorn,  and  those  near  it,  the  confusion  a  little  worse  confound- 
ed. Close  by  a  rather  eloquent  Oration  "  On  receiving  the  Doctor's- 
Hat,"  lie  washbills  marked  bezahlt  (settled).  His  Travels  are  indicated 
by  the  Street- Advertisements  of  the  various  cities  he  has  visited ;  of 
which  Street- Advertisements,  in  most  living  tongues,  here  is  perhaps  the 
completest  collection  extant. 

So  that  if  the  Clothes  Volume  itself  was  too  like  a  Chaos,  we  have 
now  instead  of  the  solar  Luminary  that  should  still  it,  the  airy  Limbo 
which  by  intermixture  will  farther  volatilise  and  discompose  it !  As 
we  shall  perhaps  see  it  our  duty  ultimately  to  deposit  these  Six  Paper- 
Bags  in  the  British  Museum,  farther  description,  and  all  vituperation  of 
them,  may  be  spared.  Biography  or  Autobiography  of  Teufelsdrockh 
there  is,  clearly  enough,  none  to  be  gleaned  here  :  at  most  some  sketchy, 
shadowy  fugitive  likeness  of  him  may,  by  unheard-of  efforts,  partly  of 
intellect,  partly  of  imagination,  on  the  side  of  Editor  and  of  Reader, 
rise  up  between  them.  Only  as  a  gaseous-chaotic  Appendix  to  that 
aqueous-chaotic  Volume  can  the  contents  of  the  Six  Bags  hover  round 
us,  and  portions  thereof  be  incorporated  with  our  delineation  of  it. 

Daily  and  nightly  does  the  Editor  sit  (with  green  spectacles)  decipher- 
ing these  unimaginable  Documents  from  their  perplexed  cwsiv-schrift ; 
collating  them  with  the  almost  equally  unimaginable  Volume,  which 
stands  in  legible  print.  Over  such  a  universal  medley  of  high  and  low, 
of  hot,  cold,  moist  and  dry,  is  he  here  struggling  (by  union  of  like  with 
like,  which  is  Method)  to  build  a  firm  Bridge  for  British  travellers. 
Never  perhaps  since  our  first  Bridge-builders,  Sin  and  Death,  built  that 
stupendous  Arch  from  Hell-gate  to  the  Earth,  did  any  Pontifex,  or  Pon- 
tiff, undertake  such  a  task  as  the  present  Editor.  For  in  this  Arch  too, 
leading,  as  we  humbly  presume,  far  otherwards  than  that  grand  primeval 
one,  the  materials  are  to  be  fished  up  from  the  weltering  deep,  and  down 
from  the  simmering  air,  here  one  mass,  there  another,  and  cunningly 
cemented,  while  the  elements  boil  beneath:  nor  is  there  any  supernatu- 
ral force  to  do  it  with;  but  simply  the  Diligence  and  feeble  thinking 
Faculty  of  an  English  Editor,  endeavoring  to  evolve  printed  Creation- 
out  of  a  German  printed  and  written  Chaos,  wherein,  as  he  shoots  to 
and  fro  in  it,  gathering,  clutching,  piecing  the  Why  to  the  far-distant 
Wherefore,  his  whole  Faculty  and  Self  are  like  to  be  swallowed  up. 

Patiently,  under  these  incessant  toils  and  agitations,  does  the  Editor, 
dismissing  all  anger,  see  his  otherwise  robust  health  declining;  some 
fraction  of  his  allotted  natural  sleep  nightly  leaving  him,  and  little  but 
an  inflamed  nervous-system  to  be  looked  for.    What  is  the  use  of  i 
Health,  or  of  Life,  if  not  to  do  some  work  therewith  7    And  what  work  1 
nobler  than  transplanting  foreign  Thought  into  the  barren  domestic 


38  SARTOR  RESARTUS. 

soil;  except,  indeed  planting  Thought  of  your  own,  winch  the  fewest 
are  privileged  to  do  ?  Wild  as  it  looks,  this  Philosophy  of  Clothes,  can 
we  ever  reach  its  real  meaning,  promises  to  reveal  new-coming  Eras, 
the  first  dim  rudiments  and  already-budding  germs  of  a  nobler  Era,  in 
Universal  History.  Is  not  such  a  prize  worth  some  striving  1  Forward 
with  us,  courageous  reader ;  be  it  towards  failure  or  towards  success ! 
The  latter  thou  sharest  with  us,  the  former  also  is  not  all  our  own. 


BOOK  II. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENESIS. 

In  a  psychological  point  of  view,  it  is  perhaps  questionable  whether 
from  birth  and  genealogy,  how  closely  scrutinised  soever,  much  insight 
is  to  be  gained.  Nevertheless,  as  in  every  phenomenon  the  Beginning 
remains  always  the  most  notable  moment ;  so,  with  regard  to  any  great 
man,  we  rest  not  till,  for  our  scientific  profit  or  not,  the  whole  circum- 
stances of  his  first  appearance  in  this  Planet,  and  what  manner  of  Pub- 
lic Entry  he  made,  are  with  utmost  completeness  rendered  manifest.  To 
the  Genesis  of  our  Clothes-Philosopher,  then,  be  this  First  Chapter  con- 
secrated. Unhappily,  indeed,  he  seems  to  be  of  quite  obscure  extrac- 
tion; uncertain,  we  might  almost  say,  whether  of  any:  so  that  this 
Genesis  of  his  can  properly  be  nothing  but  an  Exodus  (or  transit  out  of 
Invisibility  into  Visibility) ;  whereof  the  preliminary  portion  is  nowhere 
forthcoming. 

"  In  the  village  of  Entepfuhl,"  thus  writes  he,  in  the  Bag  Libra,  on 
various  Papers,  which  we  arrange  with  difficulty,  "  dwelt  Andreas  Fut- 
teral  and  his  wife  ;  childless,  in  still  seclusion,  and  cheerful  though  now 
verging  towards  old  age.  Andreas  had  been  grenadier  Sergeant,  and 
even  regimental  Schoolmaster  under  Frederick  the  Great;  but  now, 
quitting  the  halbert  and  ferule  for  the  spade  and  pruning-hook,  cultivated 
a  little  Orchard,  on  the  produce  of  which  he,  Cincinnatus-like,  lived  not 
without  dignity.  Fruits,  the  peach,  the  apple,  the  grape,  with  other  va- 
rieties came  in  their  season ;  all  which  Andreas  knew  how  to  sell :  on 
evenings  he  smoked  largely,  or  read  (as  beseemed  a  regimental  School- 
master), and  talked  to  neighbors  that  would  listen  about  the  victory  of 
Rossbach  ;  and  how  Fritz  the  Only  (dcr  Einzige)  had  once  with  his  own 
royal  lips  spoken  to  him,  had  been  pleased  to  say  when  Andreas  as 
camp-sentinel  demanded  the  pass-word,  '  Schweig  Du  Hund  (Peace, 
hound  !)'  before  any  of  his  staff-adjutants  could  answer.  1  Dasnenn  'ick 
mir  eiiien  Konig,  there  is  what  I  call  a  King,'  would  Andreas  exclaim  : 
1  but  the  smoke  of  Kunersdorf  was  still  smarting  his  eyes.' 

"  Gretchen,  the  housewife,  won  like  Dcsdemona  by  the  deeds  rather 
than  the  looks  of  her  now  veteran  Othello,  lived  not  in  altogether  mili- 
tary subordination ;  for,  as  Andreas  said,  1  the  womankind  will  not  drill 
(v:er  kann  die  Weibcrchcn  drcssircn):''  nevertheless  she  at  heart  loved 
him  both  for  valor  and  wisdom ;  to  her  a  Prussian  grenadier  Sergeant 
and  Regiment's-Schoolmaster  was  little  other  than  a  Cicero  and  Cid : 
what  you  see,  yet  cannot  see  over,  is  as  good  as  infinite.  Nay,  was  not 
Andreas  in  very  deed  a  man  of  order,  courage,  downrightness  (Gerad* 


GENESIS. 


31 


keil);  that  understood  Busching's  Geography,  had  been  in  the  victory 
of  Rossbach,  and  left  for  dead  in  the  camisade  of  Hochkirch  1  The 
good  Gretchen,  for  all  her  fretting,  watched  over  him  and  hovered  round 
him,  as  only  a  true  housemother  can  :  assiduously  she  cooked  and  sewed 
and  scoured  for  him;  so  that  not  only  his  old  regimental  sword  and 
grenadier-cap,  but  the  whole  habitation  and  environment,  where  on  pegs 
of  honor  they  hung,  looked  ever  trim  and  gay :  a  roomy  painted  Cot- 
tage, embowered  in  fruit-trees  and  forest-trees,  evergreens  and  honey- 
suckles; rising  many-colored  from  amid  shaven  grass-plots,  flowers 
struggling  in  through  the  very  windows;  under  its  long  projecting  eaves 
nothing  but  garden-tools  in  methodic  piles  (to  screen  them  from  rain), 
and  seats,  where,  especially  on  summer  nights,  a  King  might  have 
wished  to  sit  and  smoke,  and  call  it  his.  Such  a  Bauer  gut  (Copyhold) 
had  Gretchen  given  her  veteran  ;  whose  sinewy  arms,  and  long-disused 
gardening  talent,  had  made  it  what  you  saw. 

"  Into  this  umbrageous  Man's-nest,  one  meek  yellow  evening  or  dusk, 
when  the  Sun,  hidden  indeed  from  terrestrial  Entepfuhl,  did  neverthe- 
less journey  visible  and  radiant  along  the  celestial  Balance  (Libra),  it 
was  that  a  Stranger  of  reverend  aspect  entered ;  and,  with  grave  saluta- 
tion, stood  before  the  two  rather  astonished  housemates.  He  was  close- 
muffled  in  a  wide  mantle ;  which  without  farther  parley  unfolding,  he 
deposited  therefrom  what  seemed  some  Basket,  overhung  with  green 
Persian  silk ;  saying  only :  Ihr  lieben  Leute,  hier  bringe  ein  unschatz- 
bares  Verleihen;  oiehmt  es  in  aller  Acht,  sorgfaltigst  benutzt  es:  mit  hohem 
Lokn,  oder  wohl  mit  schwcrem  Zinsen,  wiraVs  cinst  zuruckgefordert, 
'  Good  Christian  people,  here  lies  for  you  an  invaluable  Loan ;  take  all 
heed  thereof,  in  all  carefulness  employ  it:  with  high  recompense,  or  else 
with  heavy  penalty,  will  it  one  day  be  required  back.'  Uttering  which 
singular  words,  in  a  clear,  bell-like,  for  ever  memorable  tone,  the  Stran- 
ger gracefully  withdrew ;  and  before  Andreas  or  his  wife,  gazing  in  ex- 
pectant wonder,  had  time  to  fashion  either  question  or  answer,  was  clean 
gone.  Neither  out  of  doors  could  aught  of  him  be  seen  or  heard  ;  he 
had  vanished  in  the  thickets,  in  the  dusk ;  the  Orchard-gate  stood  quiet- 
ly closed :  the  Stranger  was  gone  once  and  always.  So  sudden  had  the 
whole  transaction  been,  in  the  autumn  stillness  and  twilight,  so  gentle, 
noiseless,  that  the  Futterals  could  have  fancied  it  all  a  trick  of  Imagina- 
tion, or  some  visit  from  an  authentic  Spirit.  Only  that  the  green  silk 
Basket,  such  as  neither  Imagination  nor  authentic  Spirits  are  wont  to 
carry,  still  stood  visible  and  tangible  on  their  little  parlor-table.  Towards 
this  the  astonished  couple,  now  with  lit  candle,  hastily  turned  their  at- 
tention. Lifting  the  green  veil,  to  see  what  invaluable  it  hid,  they  de- 
scried there,  amid  down  and  rich  white  wrappages,  no  Pitt  Diamond  or 
Hapsburg  Regalia,  but  in  the  softest  sleep,  a  little  red-colored  Infant ! 
Beside  it,  lay  a  roll  of  gold  Friedrichs,  the  exact  amount  of  which  was 
never  publicly  known :  also  a  Taufschein  (baptismal  certificate),  where- 
in unfortunately  nothing  but  the  Name  was  decipherable ;  other  docu- 
ment or  indication  none  whatever. 

"  To  wonder  and  conjecture  was  unavailing,  then  and  thenceforth. 
Nowhere  in  Entepfuhl,  on  the  morrow  or  next  day,  did  tidings  trans- 
pire of  any  such  figure  as  the  Stranger ;  nor  could  the  Traveller,  who 
had  passed  through  the  neighboring  Town  in  coach-and-four,  be  con- 
nected with  this  Apparition,  except  in  the  way  of  gratuitous  surmise. 
Meanwhile,  for  Andreas  and  his  wife,  the  grand  practical  problem  was : 
What  to  do  with  this  little  sleeping  red-colored  Infant  1  Amid  amaze- 
ments and  curiosities,  which  had  to  die  away  without  external  satisfy- 
ing, they  resolved,  as  in  such  circumstances  charitable  prudent  people 
needs  must,  on  nursing  it,  though  with  spoon-meat,  into  whiteness,  and 
if  possible  into  manhood.    The  Heavens  smiled  on  their  endeavor  :  thus 


40 


SARTOR  RESARTUS, 


has  that  same  mysterious  Individual  ever  since  had  a  status  for  himself, 
in  this  visible  Universe,  some  modicum  of  victual  and  lodging  and 
parade-ground  ;  and  now  expanded  in  bulk,  faculty,  and  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,  he,  as  Her  Diogenes  Teufelsdrockh,  professes,  or  is 
ready  to  profess,  perhaps  not  altogether  without  effect,  in  the  new  Uni- 
versity of  Weissnichtwo,  the  new  Science  of  Things  in  General." 

Our  Philosopher  declares  here,  as  indeed  we  should  think  he  well 
might,  that  these  facts,  first  communicated,  by  the  good  Gretchen  Fut- 
teral,  in  his  twelfth  year,  "  produced  on  the  boyish  heart  and  fancy  a  quite 
indelible  impression.  Who  this  reverend  Personage,1'  he  says,  "tint 
glided  into  the  Orchard  Cottage  when  the  Sun  was  in  Libra,  "and  then, 
as  on  spirit's  wings,  glided  out  again,  might  be  1  An  inexpressible 
desire,  full  of  love  and  of  sadness,  has  often  since  struggled  within  me 
to  shape  an  answer.  Ever  in  my  distresses  and  my  loneliness,  has  Fan- 
tasy turned,  full  of  longing  (sc'hjisucktsvoll),  to  that  unknown  Father, 
who,  perhaps  far  from  me,  perhaps  near,  either  way  invisible,  might  have 
taken  me  to  his  paternal  bosom,  there  to  lie  screened  from  many  a  woe. 
Thou  beloved  Father,  dost  thou  still,  shut  out  from  me  only  by  thin 
penetrable  curtains  of  earthly  Space,  wend  to  and  fro  among  the  crowd 
of  the  living  ]  Or  art  thou  hidden  by  those  far  thicker  curtains  of  the 
Everlasting  Night,  or  rather  of  the  Everlasting  Day,  through  which  my 
mortal  eye  and  outstretched  arms  need  not  strive  to  reach  ?  Alas  !  I 
know  not,  and  in  vain  vex  myself  to  know.  More  than  once,  heart- 
deluded,  have  I  taken  for  thee  this  and  the  other  noble-looking  Stranger  ; 
and  approached  him  wistfully,  with  infinite  regard :  but  he  too  must 
repel  me,  he  too  was  not  thou. 

"  And  yet,  O  Man  born  of  Woman,"'  cries  the  Autobiographer,  with 
one  of  his  sudden  whirls,  "  wherein  is  my  case  peculiar  ]  Hadst  thou, 
any  more  than  I,  a  Father  whom  thou  knowest  ?  The  Andreas  and 
Gretchen,  or  the  Adam  and  Eve,  who  led  thee  into  Life,  and  for  a  time 
suckled  and  pap-fed  thee  there,  whom  thou  namest  Father  and  Mother  j 
these  were,  like  mine,  but  thy  nursing-father  and  nursing-mother:  thy 
true  Beginning  and  Father  is  in  Heaven,  whom  with  the  bodily  eye  thou 
shalt  never  behold,  but  only  with  the  spiritual." 

••  The  little  green  veil,''  adds  he,  among  much  similar  moralising, 
and  embroiled  "discoursing,  "  I  yet  keep ;  still  more  inseparably  the 
Name,  Diogenes  Teufelsdrockh.  From  the  veil  can  nothing  be  inferred  : 
a  piece  of  now  quite  faded  Persian  silk,  like  thousands  of  others.  On 
the  Name  I  have  many  times  meditated  and  conjectured ;  but  neither  in 
this  lay  there  any  clue.  That  it  was  my  unknown  Father's  name  I  must 
hesitate  to  believe.  To  no  purpose  have  I  searched  through  all  the 
Herald's  Books,  in  and  without  the  German  Empire,  and  through  all 
manner  of  Subscriber- Lists  (Pranwneranten),  Militia-Rolls,  and  other 
Name  Catalogues ;  extraordinary  names  as  we  have  in  Germany,  tl>e 
name  of  Teufelsdrockh,  except  as  appended  to  my  own  person,  nowhere 
occurs.  Again,  what  may  the  unchristian  rather  than  Christian  1  Dio- 
genes' mean  1  Did  that  reverend  Basket-bearer  intend,  by  such  desig- 
nation, to  shadow  forth  my  future  destiny,  or  his  own  present  malign 
humor "?  Perhaps  the  latter,  perhaps  both."  Thou  ill-starred  Parent,  who 
like  an  Ostrich  must  leave  thy  ill-starred  offspring  to  be  hatched  into 
self-support  by  the  mere  sky-influences  of  Chance,  can  thy  pilgrimage 
have  been  a  smooth  one  ]  Beset  by  Misfortune  thou  doubtless  hast  been  ; 
or  indeed  by  the  worst  figure  of  Misfortune,  by  Misconduct.  Often  have 
I  fancied  how,  in  thy  hard  life-battle,  thou  wert  shot  at  and  slung  at, 
wounded,  hand-fettered,  hamstrung,  browbeaten  and  bedevilled,  by  the 
Time-Spirit  (Zeitgeist)  in  thyself  and  others,  till  the  good  soul  first  given 
thee  was  seared  into  grim  rage :  and  thou  hadst  nothing  for  it  but  to 
leave  in  me  an  indignant  appeal  to  the  Future,  and  living  speaking  Pro- 


GENESIS. 


41 


test  against  the  Devil,  as  that  same  Spirit  not  of  the  Time  only,  but  of 
Time  itself,  is  well  named  !  Which  Appeal  and  Protest,  may  I  now 
modestly  add,  was  not  perhaps  quite  lost  in  air. 

"For,  indeed,  as  Walter  Shandy  often  insisted,  there  is  much,  nay, 
almost  all,  in  Names.  The  name  is  the  earliest  Garment  you  wrap 
round  the  Earth- visiting  Me  ;  to  which  it  thenceforth  cleaves,  more  tena- 
ciously (for  there  are  Names  that  have  lasted  nigh  thirty  centuries)  than 
the  very  skin.  And  now  from  without,  what  mystic  influences  does  it 
not  send  inwards,  even  to  the  centre;  especially  in  those  plastic  first- 
times,  when  the  whole  soul  is  yet  infantine,  soft,  and  the  invisible  seed- 
grain  will  grow  to  be  an  all  over-shadowing  tree  !  Names  1  Could  I 
unfold  the  influence  of  Names,  which  are  the  most  important  of  all 
Clothings,  I  were  a  second  greater  Trismegistus.  Not  only  all  common 
Speech,  but  Science,  Poetry  itself  is  no  other,  if  thou  consider  it,  than  a 
right  Naming.  Adam's  first  task  was  giving  names  to  natural  Appear- 
ances: what  is  ours  still  but  a  continuation  of  the  same  ;  be  the  Appear- 
ances exotic-vegetable,  organic,  mechanic,  stars,  or  starry  movements 
(as  in  Science) ;  or  (as  in  Poetry)  passions,  virtues,  calamities,  God-attri- 
butes, God's  ? — In  a  very  plain  sense  the  Proverb  says,  Call  one  a  thief 
and  he  will  steal;  in  an  almost  similar  sense,  may  we  not  perhaps  say,  Call 
one  Diogenes  Teufelsdrdckh  and  he  will  open  the  Philosophy  of  Clothes. 

"  Meanwhile  the  incipient  Diogenes,  like  others,  all  ignorant  of  his 
Why,  his  How  or  Whereabout,  was  opening  his  eyes  to  the  kind  Light ; 
sprawling  out  his  ten  fingers  and  toes  ;  listening,  tasting,  feeling  ;  in  a 
word,  by  all  his  Five  Senses,  still  more  by  his  Sixth  sense  of  Hunger, 
and  a  whole  infinitude  of  inward,  spiritual,  half-awakened  Senses,  en- 
deavoring daily  to  acquire  for  himself  some  knowledge  of  this  strange 
Universe  where  he  had  arrived,  be  his  task  therein  what  it  might.  Infi- 
nite was  his  progress ;  thus  in  some  fifteen  months,  he  could  perform  the 
miracle  of— Speech  !  To  breed  a  fresh  Soul,  is  it  not  like  brooding  a 
fresh  (celestial)  Egg;  wherein  as  yet  all  is  formless,  powerless;  yet  by 
degrees  organic  elements  and  fibres  shoot  through  the  watery  albumen; 
and  out  of  vague  Sensation,  grows  Thought,  grows  Fantasy  and  Force, 
and  we  have  Philosophies,  Dynasties,  nay,  Poetries  and  Religions  ! 

"Young  Diogenes,  or  rather  young  Gneschen,  for  by  such  diminutive 
had  they  in  their  fondness  named  him,  travelled  forward  to  those  high 
consummations,  by  quick  yet  easy  stages.  The  Futterals,  to  avoid  vain 
talk,  and  moreover  keep  the  roll  of  gold  Friedrichs  safe,  gave  out  that 
he  was  a  grand-nephew  ;  the  orphan  of  some  sister's  daughter,  suddenly 
deceased,  in  Andreas's  distant  Prussian  birth-land  ;  of  whom,  as  of  her 
indigent  sorrowing  widower,  little  enough  was  known  at  Entepfuhl. 
Heedless  of  all  which,  the  Nurseling  took  to  his  spoon-meat,  and  throve. 
I  have  heard  him  noted  as  a  still  infant,  that  kept  his  mind  much  to  him- 
self; above  all,  that  seldom  or  never  cried.  He  already  felt  that  time 
wasprecious ;  that  he  had  other  work  cut  out  for  him  than  whimpering." 

Such,  after  utmost  painful  search  and  collation  among  these  miscella- 
neous Paper-masses,  is  all  the  notice  we  can  gather  of  Herr  Teufels- 
drockh's  genealogy.  More  imperfect,  more  enigmatic  it  can  seem  to 
few  readers  than  to  us.  The  Professor,  in  whom  truly  we  more  and 
more  discern  a  certain  satirical  turn,  and  deep  under-currents  of  rogTiish 
whim,  for  the  present  stands  pledged  in  honor,  so  we  will  not  doubt  him  : 
but  seems  it  not  conceivable  that,  by  the  "  good  Gretchen  Futteral,"  or 
some  other  perhaps  interested  party,  he  has  himself  been  deceived  1 
Should  these  Sheets,  translated  or  not,  ever  reach  the  Entepfuhl  Circu- 
lating-Library, some  cultivated  native  of  that  district  might  feel  called 
to  aflbrd  explanation.  Nay,  since  Books,  like  invisible  scouts,  permeate 
the  whole  habitable  globe,  and  Tombuctoo  itself  is  not  safe  from  British 
Literature,  may  not  some  Copy  find  out  even  the  mysterious  Baske* 


42 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


bearing  stranger,  who  in  a  state  of  extreme  senility  perhaps  still  exists; 
and  gently  force  even  him  to  disclose  himself;  to  claim  openly  a  son,  in 
whom  any  father  may  feel  pride  1 


CHAPTER  II. 

IDYLLIC. 

"  Happy  season  of  Childhood  !"  exclaims  Teufelsdrockh  :  "  Kind  Na- 
ture, that  art  to  all  a  bountiful  mother;  that  visitest  the  poor  man's  hut 
with  auroral  radiance ;  and  for  thy  Nurseling  hast  provided  a  soft 
swathing  of  Love  and  infinite  Hope,  wherein  he  waxes  and  slumbers, 
danced-round  (umgaukelt)  by  sweetest  Dreams !  If  the  paternal  Cottage 
still  shuts  us  in,  its  roof  still  screens  us;  with  a  Father  we  have  as  yet  a 
prophet,  priest  and  king,  and  an  Obedience  that  makes  us  Free.  The 
young  spirit  has  awakened  out  of  Eternity,  and  knows  not  what  we 
mean  by  Time ;  as  yet  Time  is  no  fast-hurrying  stream,  but  a  sportful 
sunlit  ocean ;  years  to  the  child  are  as  ages :  ah !  the  secret  of  Vicissi- 
tude, of  that  slower  or  quicker  decay  and  ceaseless  downrushing  of  the 
universal  World-fabric,  from  the  granite  mountain  to  the  man  or  day- 
moth,  is  yet  unknown ;  and  in  a  motionless  Universe,  we  taste,  what  af- 
terwards in  this  quick-whirling  Universe  is  forever  denied  us, the  balm 
of  Rest.  Sleep  on,  thou  fair  Child,  for  thy  long  rough  journey  is  at 
hand !  A  little  while,  and  thou  too  shalt  sleep  no  more,  but  thy  very 
dreams  shall  be  mimic  battles;  thou  too,  with  old  Arnauld,  must  say  in 
stern  patience  :  '  Rest  1  Rest  1  Shall  I  not  have  all  Eternity  to  rest  in  V 
Celestial  Nepenthe !  though  a  Pyrrhus  conquer  empires,  and  an  Alex- 
ander sack  the  world,  he  finds  thee  not ;  and  thou  hast  once  fallen  gen- 
tly, of  thy  own  accord,  on  the  eye-lids,  on  the  heart  of  every  mother's 
child.  For  as  yet,  sleep  and  waking  are  one:  the  fair  Life-garden 
rustles  infinite  around,  and  everywhere  is  dewy  fragrance,  and  the  bud- 
ding of  Hope ;  which  budding,  if  in  youth,  too  frostnipt,  it  grows  to 
flowers,  will  in  manhood  yield  no  fruit,  but  a  prickly,  bitter-rinded  stone- 
fruit,  of  which  the  fewest  can  find  the  kernel." 

In  such  rose-colored  light  does  our  Professor,  as  Poets  are  wont,  look 
back  on  his  childhood ;  the  historical  details  of  which  (to  say  nothing  of 
much  other  vague  oratorical  matter)  he  accordingly  dwells  on,  with  an 
almost  wearisome  minuteness.  We  hear  of  Entepfuhl  standing  "in 
trustful  derangement"  among  the  woody  slopes;  the  paternal  Orchard 
flanking  it  as  extreme  out-post  from  below;  the  little  Kuhbach  gushing 
kindly  by,  among  beech-rows,  through  river  after  river,  into  the  Donau, 
into  the  Black  Sea,  into  the  Atmosphere  and  Universe;  and  how  "the 
brave  old  Linden,"  stretching  like  a  parasol  of  twenty  ells  in  radius, 
overtopping  all  other  rows  and  clumps,  towered  up  from  the  central 
Agora  and  Campus  Martins  of  the  Village,  like  its  Sacred  Tree ;  and 
how  the  old  men  sat  talking  under  its  shadow  (Gneschen  often  greedily 
listening),  and  the  wearied  laborers  reclined,  and  the  unwearied  children 
sported,  and  the  young  men  and  maidens  often  danced  to  flute-music. 
"  Glorious  summer  twilights,"  cries  Teufelsdrockh,  "  when  the  Sun  like 
a  proud  Conqueror  and  Imperial  Taskmaster  turned  his  back,  with  his 
gold-purple  emblazonry,  and  all  his  fire-clad  bodyguard  (of  Prismatic 
Colors) ;  and  the  tired  brickmakers  of  this  clay  Earth  might  steal  a  little 
frolic,  and  those  few  meek  Stars  would  not  tell  of  them !" 

Then  have  we  long  details  of  the  Weinlesen  (Vintage),  the  Harvest- 
Home,  Christmas,  and  so  forth ;  with  a  whole  cycle  of  the  Entepfuhl 
Children's-games,  differing  apparently  by  mere  superficial  shades  from 
those  of  other  countries.    Concerning  all  which,  we  shall  here,  for  ob- 


IDYLLIC. 


43 


vious  reasons,  say  nothing.  What  cares  the  world  for  our  as  yet  minia- 
ture Philosopher's  achievements  under  that  "  brave  old  Linden  1"  Or 
even  where  is  the  use  of  such  practical  reflections  as  the  following  1  "  In 
all  the  sports  of  Children,  were  it  only  in  their  wanton  breakages  and 
defacements,  you  shall  discern  a  creative  instinct  {Schaffenden  Trieb): 
the  Mankin  feels  that  he  is  a  born  Man,  that  his  vocation  is  to  Work. 
The  choicest  present  you  can  make  him  is  a  Tool ;  be  it  knife  or  pen- 
gun,  for  construction  or  for  destruction ;  either  way  it  is  for  Work,  for 
Change.  In  gregarious  sports  of  skill  or  strength,  the  Boy  trains  him- 
self to  Co-operation,  for  war  or  peace,  as  governor  or  governed:  the 
little  Maid  again,  provident  of  her  domestic  destiny,  takes  with  prefer- 
ence to  Dolls." 

Perhaps,  however,  we  may  give  this  anecdote,  considering  who  it  is 
that,  relates  it :  "  My  first  short-clothes  were  of  yellow  serge ;  or  rather, 
I  should  say,  my  first  short  cloth,  for  the  vesture  was  one  and  indivisi- 
ble, reaching  from  neck  to  ankle,  a  mere  body  with  four  limbs :  of  which 
fashion  how  little  could  I  then  divine  the  architectural,  how  much  less 
the  moral  significance !" 

More  graceful  is  the  following  little  picture :  "  On  fine  evenings  I  was 
wont  to  carry  forth  my  supper  (bread-crumb  boiled  in  milk),  and  eat  it 
out  of  doors.  On  the  coping  of  the  Orchard- wall,  which  I  could  reach 
by  climbing,  or  still  more  easily  if  Father  Andreas  would  set  up  the 
pruning-ladder,  my  porringer  was  placed:  there,  many  a  sunset,  have  I, 
looking  at  the  distant  western  Mountains,  consumed,  not  without  relish, 
my  evening  meal.  Those  hues  of  gold  and  azure,  that  hush  of  World's 
expectation  as  Day  died,  were  still  a  Hebrew  Speech  for  me ;  neverthe- 
less I  was  looking  at  the  fair  illuminated  Letters,  and  had  an  eye  for 
their  gilding." 

With  "  the  little  one's  friendship  for  cattle  and  poultry"  we  shall  not 
much  intermeddle.  It  may  be  that  hereby  he  acquired  a  "  certain  deeper 
sympathy  with  animated  Nature :"  but  when,  we  would  ask,  saw  any 
man,  in  a  collection  of  Biographical  Documents,  such  a  piece  as  this  : 
"  Impressive  enough  {bedeutungsvoll)  was  it  to  hear,  in  early  morning, 
the  Swineherd's  horn ;  and  know  that  so  many  hungry  happy  quadru- 
peds were,  on  all  sides,  starting  in  hot  haste  to  join  him,  for  breakfast 
on  the  Heath.  Or  to  see  them,  at  eventide,  all  marching  in  again,  with 
short  squeak,  almost  in  military  order;  and  each,  topographically  cor- 
rect, trotting  off  in  succession  to  the  right  or  left,  through  its  own  lane, 
to  its  own  dwelling;  till  old  Kunz,  at  the  Village-head,  now  left  alone, 
blew  his  last  blast,  and  retired  for  the  night.  We  are  wont  to  love  the 
Hog  chiefly  in  the  form  of  Ham ;  yet  did  not  these  bristly  thick-skinned 
beings  here  manifest  intelligence,  perhaps  humor  of  character ;  at  any 
rate,  a  touching,  trustful  submissiveness  to  Man, — who  were  he  but  a 
Swineherd,  in  darned  gabardine,  and  leather  breeches  more  resembling 
slate  or  discolored  tin  breeches,  is  still  the  Hierarch  of  this  lower  world7?" 

It  is  maintained,  by  Helvetius  and  his  set,  that  an  infant  of  genius  is 
quite  the  same  as  any  other  infant,  only  that  certain  surprisingly  favor- 
able influences  accompany  him  through  life,  especially  through  child- 
hood, and  expand  him,  while  others  lie  close-folded  and  continue  dunces. 
Herein,  say  they,  consists  the  whole  difference  between  an  inspired  Pro- 
phet and  a  double-barrelled  Game-preserver:  the  inner  man  of  the  one  has 
been  fostered  into  generous  development ;  that  of  the  other,  crushed  down 
perhaps  by  vigor  of  animal  digestion,  and  the  like,  has  exuded  and 
evaporated,  or  at  best  sleeps  now  irresuscitably  stagnant  at  the  bottom  of 
his  stomach.  "With  which  opinion,"  cries  Teufelsdrockh,  "  I  should  as 
soon  agree  as  with  this  other,  that  an  acorn  might,  by  favorable  or 
unfavorable  influences  of  soil  and  climate,  be  nursed  into  a  cabbage,  or 
the  cabbage-seed  into  an  oak. 


S AK TOR  RESARTUS. 


"Nevertheless,'*  continues  he,  "I,  too,  acknowledge  the  all  but  om- 
nipotence of  early  culture  and  nurture  ;  hereby  we  have  either  a  dod- 
dered dwarf  bush,  or  a  high-towering,  wide-shadowing  tree ;  either  a 
sick  yellow  cabbage,  or  an  edible,  luxuriant,  green  one.  Of  a  truth,  it 
is  the  duty  of  all  men,  especially  of  all  philosophers,  to  note  down  with 
accuracy  the  characteristic  circumstances  of  their  Education,  what  fur- 
thered, what  hindered,  what  in  any  way  modified  it:  to  which  duty, 
nowadays  so  pressing  for  many  a  German  Autobiographer,  I  also  zea- 
lously address  myself." — Thou  rogue  !  Is  it  by  short-clothes  of  yellow 
serge,  and  swine-herd  horns,  that  an  infant  of  genius  is  educated  1  And 
yet,  as  usual,  it  ever  remains  doubtful  whether  he  is  laughing  in  his 
sleeves  at  these  Autobiographical  times  of  ours,  or  writing  from  the 
abundance  of  his  own  fond  ineptitude.  For  he  continues ;  "  If  among 
the  everstreaming  currents  of  Sights,  Hearings,  Feelings  for  Pain  or 
Pleasure,  whereby,  as  in  a  Magic  Hall,  young  Gneschen  went  about 
environed,  I  might  venture  to  select  and  specify,  perhaps  these  follow- 
ing were  also  of  the  number  : 

"  Doubtless,  as  childish  sports  call  forth  Intellect,  Activity,  so  the 
young  creature's  Imagination  was  stirred  up,  and  a  Historical  tendency 
given  him  by  the  narrative  habits  of  Father  Andreas ;  who,  with  his 
battle-reminiscences,  and  grey,  austere,  yet  hearty  patriarchal  aspect, 
could  not  but  appear  another  Ulysses  and  '  Much-enduring  Man.'  Ea- 
gerly I  hung  upon  his  tales,  when  listening  neighbors  enlivened  the 
hearth :  from  these  perils  and  these  travels,  wild  and  far  almost  as  Hades 
itself,  a  dim  world  of  Adventure  expanded  itself  within  me.  Incredible 
also  was  the  knowledge  I  acquired  in  standing  by  the  Old  Men  under 
the  Linden  tree  :  the  whole  of  Immensity  was  yet  new  to  me  ;  and  had 
not  these  reverend  seniors,  talkative  enough,  been  employed  in  partial 
surveys  thereof  for  nigh  fourscore  years  ?  With  amazement  I  began  tc 
discover  that  Entepfuhl  stood  in  the  middle  of  a  Country,  of  a  World ; 
that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  History,  as  Biography ;  to  which  I  also, 
one  day,  by  hand  and  tongue,  might  contribute. 

"  In  a  like  sense  worked  the  Postwagen  (Stage-Coach),  which  slow- 
rolling  under  its  mountains  of  men  and  luggage,  wrended  through  our 
Village  :  northwards,  truly,  in  the  dead  of  night ;  yet  southwards  visibly 
at  eventide.  Not  till  my  eighth  year,  did  I  reflect  that  this  Postwagen 
could  be  other  than  some  terrestrial  Moon,  rising  and  setting  by  mere 
Law  of  Nature,  like  the  heavenly  one  ;  that  it  came  on  made  highways, 
from  far  cities  towards  far  cities ;  weaving  them  like  a  monstrous  shuttle 
into  closer  and  closer  union.  It  was  then  that,  independently  of  Schil- 
ler's Wilhelm  Tell,  I  made  this  not  quite  insignificant  reflection  (so  true 
also  in  spiritual  things) :  Any  road,  this  simple  Entepfuhl  road,  will  lead 
you  to  the  end  of  Ike  World! 

"Why  mention  our  Swallows,  which  out  of  far  Africa  as  I  learned, 
threading  their  way  over  seas  and  mountains,  corporate  cities  and  belli- 
gerent nations,  yearly  found  themselves,  with  the  month  of  May,  snug- 
lodged  in  our  Cottage  Lobby  1  The  hospitable  Father  (for  cleanliness' 
sake)  had  fixed  a  little  bracket,  plumb  under  their  nest :  there  they  built, 
and  caught  flies,  and  twittered,  and  bred ;  and  all,  I  chiefly,  from  the 
heart  loved  them.  Bright,  nimble  creatures,  who  taught  you  the  mason- 
craft  ;  nay,  stranger  still,  gave  you  a  masonic  incorporation,  almost  social 
police'?  For  if,  by  ill  chance,  and  when  time  pressed,  your  House  fell, 
have  I  not  seen  five  neighborly  Helpers  next  day  ;  and  swashing  to  and 
fro,  with  animated,  loud,  long-drawn  chirpings,  and  activity  almost 
super-hirundine,  complete  it  again  before  nightfall  % 

"  But  undoubtedly  the  grand  summary  of  Entepfuhl  ehild's-cnlturc, 
where  as  in  a  funnel  its  manifold  influences  were  concentrated  and 
simultaneously  poured  down  on  us,  was  the  annual  Cattle-fair.  Here, 


IDYLLIC. 


45 


assembling  from  all  the  four  winds,  came  the  elements  of  an  unspeaka- 
ble hurly-burly.  Nutbrown  maids  and  nutbrown  men,  all  clear- washed, 
loud-laughing,  bedizened  and  be-ribanded  ;  who  came  for  dancing,  for 
treating,  and  if  possible  for  happiness.  Topbooted  Graziers  from  the 
North;  Swiss  Brokers,  Italian  Drovers,  also  top-booted  from  the 
South  ;  these  with  their  subalterns  in  leather  jerkins,  leather  scull-caps, 
and  long  ox-goads ;  shouting  in  half-articulate  speech,  amid  the  inar- 
ticulate barking  and  bellowing.  Apart  stood  Potters  from  lar  Saxony, 
with  their  crockery  in  fair  rows ;  Niirnberg  Pedlars,  in  booths  that  to 
me  seemed  richer  than  Ormuz  bazaars;  Showmen  from  the  LagoMag- 
giore;  detachments  of  the  Wiener  Schub  (Offscourings  of  Vienna) 
vociferously  superintending  games  of  chance.  Ballad-singers  brayed. 
Auctioneers  grew  hoarse ;  cheap  New  Wine  (heuriger)  flowed  like 
water,  still  worse  confounding  the  confusion  ;  and  high  overall,  vaulted 
in  ground-and-lofty  tumbling,  a  parti-colored  Merry  Andrew,  like  the 
genius  of  the  place  and  of  Life  itself. 

"  Thus  encircled  by  the  mystery  of  Existence  j  under  the  deep  hea- 
venly Firmament ;  waited  on  by  the  four  golden  Seasons,  with  their 
vicissitudes  of  contribution,  for  even  grim  Winter  brought  its  skating- 
matches  and  shooting-matches,  its  snow-storms  and  Christmas  carols, 
— did  the  Child  sit  and  learn.  These  things  were  the  Alphabet,  whereby 
in  after-time  he  was  to  syllable  and  partly  read  the  grand  Volume  of  the 
World  :  what  matters  it  whether  such  Alphabet  be  in  large  gilt  letters  or 
in  small  ungilt  ones,  so  you  have  an  eye  to  read  it  1  For  Gneschen, 
eager  to  learn,  the  very  act  of  looking  thereon  was  a  blessedness  that 
gilded  all :  his  existence  was  a  bright,  soft  element  of  Joy;  out  of  which, 
as  in  Prospero's  Island,  wonder  after  wonder  bodied  itself  forth,  to  teach 
by  charming. 

"  Nevertheless  I  were  but  a  vain  dreamer  to  say,  that  even  then  my 
felicity  was  perfect.  I  had,  once  for  all,  come  down  from  Heaven  into 
the  Earth.  Among  the  rainbow  colors  that  glowed  on  my  horizon,  lay 
even  in  childhood  a  dark  ring  of  Care,  as  yet  no  thicker  than  a  thread, 
and  often  quite  overshone ;  yet  always  it  reappeared,  nay,  ever  waxing 
broader  and  broader;  till  in  after  years  it  almost  overshadowed  my 
whole  canopy,  and  threatened  to  engulf  me  in  final  night.  It  was  the 
ring  of  Necessity,  whereby  we  are  all  begirt ;  happy  he  for  whom  a 
kind  heavenly  Sun  brightens  it  into  a  ring  of  Duty,  and  plays  round  it 
with  beautiful  prismatic  diffractions ;  yet  ever,  as  basis  and  as  bourne  I 
for  our  whole  being,  it  is  there. 

"  For  the  first  few  years  of  our  terrestrial  Apprenticeship,  we  have  not 
much  work  to  do ;  but,  boarded  and  lodged  gratis,  are  set  down  mostly 
to  look  about  us  over  the  workshop,  and  see  others  work,  till  we  have 
understood  the  tools  a  little,  and  can  handle  this  and  that.  If  good  Pas- 
sivity alone,  and  not  good  Passivity  and  good  Activity  together,  were 
the  thing  wanted,  then  was  my  early  position  favorable  beyond  the  most. 
In  all  that  respects  openness  of  Sense,  affectionate  Temper,  ingenuous 
Curiosity,  and  the  fostering  of  these,  what  more  could  I  have  wished  1 
On  the  other  side,  however,  things  went  not  so  well.  My  Active  Power 
( Thatkraft)  was  unfavorably  hemmed  in ;  of  which  misfortune  how 
many  traces  yet  abide  with  me  !  In  an  orderly  house,  where  the  litter 
of  children's  sports  is  hateful  enough,  your  training  is  too  stoical ; 
rather  to  bear  and  forbear  than  to  make  and  do.  I  was  forbid  much  : 
wishes  in  any  measure  bold  I  had  to  renounce ;  everywhere  a  strait 
bond  of  Obedience  inflexibly  held  me  down.  Thus  already  Freewill 
often  came  in  painful  collision  with  Necessity;  so  that  my  tears  flowed, 
and  at  seasons  the  Child  itself  might  taste  that  root  of  bitterness,  where- 
with the  whole  fruitage  of  our  life  is  mingled  and  tempered. 

"  In  which  habituation  to  obedience,  truly,  it  was  beyond  measure 


4G 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


safer  lo  err  by  excess  than  by  defect.  Obedience  is  our  universal  duty 
and  destiny ;  wherein  whoso  will  not  bend  must  break :  too  early  and 
too  thoroughly  we  cannot  be  trained  to  know  that  Would,  in  this  world 
of  ours,  is  a  mere  zero  to  Should,  and  for  most  part  as  the  smallest  of 
fractions  even  to  Shall.  Hereby  was  laid  for  me  the  basis  of  worldly 
.  Discretion,  nay,  of  Morality  itself.  Let  me  not  quarrel  with  my  up- 
bringing !  It  was  rigorous,  too  frugal,  compressively  secluded,  every 
way  unscientific :  yet  in  that  very  strictness  and  domestic  solicitude 
might  not  there  lie  the  root  of  deeper  earnestness,  of  the  stem  from  which 
all  noble  fruit  must  grow'?  Above  all,  how  unskilful  soever,  it  was 
loving,  it  was  well  meant,  honest ;  whereby  every  deficiency  was 
helped.  My  kind  Mother,  for  as  such  I  must  ever  love  the  good  Gret- 
chen,  did  me  one  altogether  invaluable  service ;  she  taught  me,  less 
indeed  by  word  than  by  act  and  daily  reverent  look  and  habitude,  her 
own  simple  version  of  the  Christian  Faith.  Andreas,  too,  attended 
Church  ;  yet  more  like  a  parade-duty,  for  which  he  in  the  other  world  ex- 
pected pay  with  arrears — as,  I  trust,  he  has  received :  but  my  Mother, 
with  a  true  woman's  heart,  and  fine  though  uncultivated  sense,  was  in 
the  strictest  acceptation  Religious.  How  indestructibly  the  Good  grows, 
and  propagates  itself,  even  among  the  weedy  entanglements  of  Evil  ! 
The  highest  whom  I  knew  on  Earth  I  here  saw  bowed  down,  with  awe 
unspeakable,  before  a  Higher  in  Heaven :  such  things,  especially  in 
infancy,  reach  inwards  to  the  very  core  of  your  being ;  mysteriously 
does  a  Holy  of  Holies  build  itself  into  visibility  in  the  mysterious  deeps ; 
and  Reverence,  the  divinest  in  man,  springs  forth  undying  from  its  mean 
envelopment  of  Fear.  Wouldst  thou  rather  be  a  peasant's  son  that 
knew,  were  it  never  so  rudely,  there  was  a  God  in  Heaven  and  in  Man  ; 
or  a  duke's  son  that  only  knew  there  were  two  and  thirty  quarters  on 
the  family-coach  ?" 

To  which  last  question  we  must  answer :  Beware,  O  Teufelsdrockh, 
of  spiritual  pride ! 


CHAPTER  III. 

PEDAGOGY. 

Hitherto  we  see  young  Gneschen,  in  his  indivisible  case  of  yellow 
serge,  borne  forward  mostly  on  the  arms  of  kind  Nature  alone  ;  seated, 
indeed,  and  much  to  his  mind,  in  the  terrestrial  workshop ;  but  (excepi 
his  soft  hazel  eyes,  which  we  doubt  not  already  gleamed  with  a  still 
intelligence)  called  upon  for  little  voluntary  movement  there.  Hitherto 
accordingly  his  aspect  is  rather  generic,  that  of  an  incipient  Philosopher 
and  Poet  in  the  abstract :  perhaps  it  would  puzzle  Herr  Heuschrecke 
himself  to  say  wherein  the  special  Doctrine  of  Clothes  is  as  yet  fore- 
shadowed or  betokened.  For  with  Gneschen,  as  with  others,  the  Man 
may  indeed  stand  pictured  in  the  Boy  (at  least  all  the  pigments  are 
there);  yet  only  some  half  of  the  Man  stands  in  the  Child,  or  young 
Boy,  namely,  his  Passive  endowment  not  his  Active.  The  more  impa- 
tient are  we  to  discover  what  figure  he  cuts  in  this  latter  capacity ;  how 
when,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  he  understands  the  tools  a  little,  and  can 
handle  this  or  that,"  he  will  proceed  to  handle  it. 

Here,  however,  may  be  the  place  to  state  that,  in  much  of  our  Philo- 
sopher's history,  there  is  something  of  an  almost  Hindoo  character  :  nay, 
perhaps  in  that  so  well  fostered  and  every-way  excellent  "  Passivity"  of 
his,  which,  with  no  free  development  of  the  antagonist  Activity,  distin- 
guished his  childhood,  we  may  detect  the  rudiments  of  much  that,  in 

/ 


PEDAGOGY. 


47 


after-days,  and  still  in  these  present  days,  astonishes  the  woild.  For  the 
shallow-sighted  Teulelsdroekh  is  ofienest  a  man  without  Activity  of 
any  kind,  a  No-man ;  for  the  deep-sighted,  again,  a  man  with  Activity 
almost  superabundant,  yet  so  spiritual,  close-hidden,  enigmatic,  that  no 
mortal  can  foresee  its  explosions,  or  even  when  it  has  exploded,  so  much 
as  ascertain  its  significance.  A  dangerous,  difficult  temper  for  the  mo- 
dern European  :  above  all,  disadvantageous  in  the  hero  of  a  Biography  ! 
Now  as  heretofore  it  will  behove  the  Editor  of  these  pages,  were  it  never 
so  unsuccessfully,  to  do  his  endeavor. 

Among  the  earliest  tools  of  any  complicacy  which  a  man,  especially  a 
man  of  letters,  gets  to  handle,  are  his  Class-books.  On  this  portion  of 
his  History  Teufelsdrockh  looks  down  professedly  as  indifferent.  Read- 
ing he  "  cannot  remember  ever  to  have  learned ;"  so  perhaps  had  it  by 
nature.  He  says  generally  :  "  of  the  insignificant  portion  of  my  educa- 
tion, which  depended  on  Schools,  there  need  almost  no  notice  be  taken. 
1  learned  what  others  learn ;  and  kept  it  stored  by  in  a  corner  of  my 
head,  seeing  as  yet  no  manner  of  use  in  it.  My  Schoolmaster,  a  down- 
bent,  brokenhearted,  underfoot  martyr,  as  others  of  that  guild  are,  did 
little  for  me,  except  discover  that  he  could  do  little  :  he,  good  soul,  pro- 
nounced me  a  genius,  fit  for  the  learned  professions ;  and  that  I  must  be 
sent  to  the  Gymnasium,  and  one  day  to  the  University.  Meanwhile, 
what  printed  thing  soever  I  could  meet  with  I  read.  My  very  copper 
pocket-money  I  laid  out  on  stall-literature :  which,  as  it  accumulated, 
I  with  my  own  hand  sewed  into  volumes.  By  this  means  was  the  young 
head  furnished  with  a  considerable  miscellany  of  things  and  shadows  of 
things :  History  in  authentic  fragments  lay  mingled  with  Fabulous  chi- 
meras, wherein  also  was  reality ;  and  the  whole  not  as  dead  stuff,  but  as 
iving  pabulum,  tolerably  nutritive  for  a  mind  as  yet  so  peptic." 

That  the  Entepfuhl  Schoolmaster  judged  well  we  now  know.  In- 
deed, already  in  the  youthful  Gneschen,  with  all  his  outward  stillness, 
there  may  have  been  manifest  an  inward  vivacity  that  promised  much  ; 
symptoms  of  a  spirit  singularly  open,  thoughtful,  almost  poetical.  Thus, 
to  say  nothing  of  his  Suppers  on  the  Orchard-wall,  and  other  pheno- 
mena of  that  earlier  period,  have  many  readers  of  these  pages  stumbled, 
in  their  twelfth  year,  on  such  reflections  as  the  following  1  "It  struck 
me  much  as  I  sat  by  the  Kuhbach,  one  silent  noontide,  and  watched  it 
flowing,  gurgling,  to  think  how  this  same  streamlet  had  flowed  and 
gurgled,  through  all  changes  of  weather  and  of  fortune,  from  beyond  the 
earliest  date  of  History.  Yes,  probably,  on  the  morning  when  Joshua 
forded  Jordan  ;  even  as  at  the  mid-day  when  Caesar,  doubtless  with  dif- 
ficulty, swam  the  Nile,  yet  kept  his  Commentaries  dry — this  little  Kuh- 
bach, assiduous  as  Tiber,  Eurotas,  or  Siloa,  was  murmuring  on  across 
the  wilderness,  as  yet  unnamed,  unseen  :  here,  too,  as  in  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Ganges,  is  a  Vein  or  Veinlet  of  the  grand  World-circulation  of 
Waters,  which,  with  its  atmospheric  Arteries,  has  lasted  and  lasts  sim- 
ply with  the  World.  Thou  fool !  Nature  alone  is  Antique,  and  the 
oldest  Art  a  mushroom  ;  that  idle  crag  thou  sittest  on  is  six  thousand 
years  of  age."  In  which  little  thought,  as  in  a  little  fountain,  may 
there  not  lie  the  beginning  of  those  well-nigh  unutterable  meditations  on 
the  grandeur  and  mystery  of  Time,  and  its  relation  to  Eternity,  which 
play  such  a  part  in  this  Philosophy  of  Clothes  ? 

Over  his  Gymnasic  and  Academic  years  the  Professor  by  no  means 
lingers  so  lyrical  and  joyful  as  over  his  childhood.  Green  sunny  tracts 
there  are  still ;  but  intersected  bv  bitter  rivulets  of  tears,  here  and  there 
stagnating  into  sour  marshes  of  discontent.  "With  my  first  view  of 
the  Hinterschlag  Gymnasium,"  writes  he,  "  my  evil  days  began.  Well 
do  I  still  remember  the  red  sunny  Whitsuntide  morning,  when  trotting 
full  of  hope,  by  the  side  of  Father  Andreas,  I  entered  the  main  street  of 


48 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


the  place,  and  saw  its  steeple-clock  (then  striking  Eight)  and  Schuldlhurn\ 
(Jail),  and  the  aproned  or  disaproncd  Burghers,  moving  in  to  breakfast  : 
a  little  dog,  in  mad  terror,  was  rushing  past;  for  some  human  imps  had 
tied  a  tin  kettle  to  his  tail ;  thus  did  the  agonized  creature,  load-jingling, 
career  through  the  whole  length  of  the  Borough,  and  become  notable 
enough.  Fit  emblem  of  many  a  Conquering  Hero,  to  whom  Fate  (wed- 
ding Fantasy  to  Sense,  as  it  often  elsewhere  does)  has  malignantly 
appended  a  tin  kettle  of  Ambition,  to  chase  him  on  ;  which,  the  faster 
he  runs,  urges  him  the  faster,  the  more  loudly  and  more  foolishly !  Fit 
emblem  also  of  much  that  awaited  myself,  in  that  mischievous  Den ;  as 
in  the  World,  whereof  it  was  a  portion  and  epitome  ! 

"  Alas,  the  kind  beech-rows  of  Entepfuhl  were  hidden  in  the  distance : 
I  was  among  strangers,  harshly,  at  best  indifferently,  disposed  towards 
me;  the  young  heart  felt,  for  the  first  time,  quite  orphaned  and  alone." 
His  schoolfellows,  as  is  usual,  persecuted  him  :  "  They  were  boys,"  he 
says,  "  mostly  rude  Boys,  and  obeyed  the  impulse  of  rude  Nature,  which 
bids  the  deerherd  fall  upon  any  stricken  hart,  the  duck-flock  put  to  death 
any  broken- winged  brother  or  sister,  and  on  all  hands  the  strong  tyran- 
nise over  the  weak."  He  admits  that  though  "  perhaps  in  an  unusual 
degree  morally  courageous,"  he  succeeded  ill  in  battle,  and  would  fain 
have  avoided  it ;  a  result  as  would  appear,  owing  less  to  his  small  per- 
sonal stature  (for  in  passionate  seasons,  he  was  "incredibly  nimble"), 
than  to  his  "  virtuous  principles  :"  "  if  it  was  disgraceful  to  be  beaten," 
says  he,  "  it  was  only  a  shade  less  disgraceful  to  have  so  much  as  fought ; 
thus  was  I  drawn  two  ways  at  once,  and  in  this  important  element  of 
school-history,  the  war-element,  had  little  but  sorrow."  On  the  whole, 
that  same  excellent  "  Passivity,"  so  notable  in  Teufelsdrdckh's  childhood, 
is  here  visibly  enough  again  getting  nourishment.  "  He  wept  often ; 
indeed  to  such  a  degree  that  he  was  nicknamed  Der  Weinende  (the 
Tearful),  which  epithet,  till  towards  his  thirteenth  year,  was  indeed  not 
quite  unmerited.  Only  at  rare  intervals  did  the  young  soul  burst  forth 
into  fire-eyed  rage,  and,  with  a  Stormfulness  (Ungcstum)  under  which 
the  boldest  quailed,  assert  that  he,  too,  had  Rights  of  Man,  or  at  least 
of  Mankin."  In  all  which,  who  does  not  discern  a  fine  flower-tree  and 
cinnamon-tree  (of  genius)  nigh  choked  among  pumpkins,  redgrass,  and 
ignoble  shrubs;  and  forced,  if  it  would  live,  to  struggle  upwards  only, 
and  not  outwards;  into  a  height  quite  sickly,  and  disproportioned  to  its 
breadth? 

We  find,  moreover,  that  his  Greek  and  Latin  were  "  mechanically" 
taught ;  Hebrew  scarce  even  mechanically  ;  much  else  which  they  called 
History,  Cosmography,  Philosophy,  and  so  forth,  no  better  than  not  at 
all.  So  that,  except  inasmuch  as  nature  was  still  busy ;  and  he  himself 
"  went  about,  as  was  of  old  his  wont,  among  the  Craftsmen's  workshops, 
there  learning  many  things  ;"  and  farther  lighted  on  some  small  store  of 
curious  reading,  in  Hans  Wachtel  the  Cooper's  house,  where  he  lodged, 
■ — his  time,  it  would  appear,  was  utterly  wasted.  Which  facts  the  Pro- 
lessor  has  not  yet  learned  to  look  upon  with  any  contentment.  Indeed, 
throughout  the  whole  of  this  Bag  Scorpio,  where  we  now  are,  and  often 
in  the  following  Bag,  he  shows  himself  unusually  animated  on  the  mat- 
ter of  Education,  and  not  without  some  touch  of  what  we  might  presume 
to  be  anger. 

"  My  Teachers,"  says  he,  "  were  hide-bound  Pedants,  without  know- 
ledge of  man's  nature  or  of  boys;  or  of  aught  save  their  lexicons  and 
quarterly  account-books.  Innumerable  dead  Vocables  (no  dead  Lan- 
guage, for  they  themselves  knew  no  Language)  they  crammed  into  us, 
and  called  it  fostering  the  growth  of  mind.  How  can  an  inanimate, 
mechanical  Gerund-grinder,  the  like  of  whom  will,  in  a  subsequent  cen- 
tury, be  manufactured,  at  Niirnberg,  out  of  wood  and  leather,  foster  the 


PEDAGOGY . 


49 


growth  of  anything ;  much  more  of  Mind,  which  grows,  not  like  a 
vegetable  (by  having  its  roots  littered  with  etymological  compost),  but 
like  a  Spirit,  by  mysterious  contact  of  Spirit;  Thought  kindling  itself 
at  the  fire  of  living  Thought  1  How  shall  he  give  kindling,  in  whose 
own  inward  man  there  is  no  live  coal,  but  all  is  burnt  out  to  a  dead 
grammatical  cinder  %  The  Hinterschlag  Professors  knew  Syntax 
enough;  and  of  the  human  soul  thus  much:  that  it  had  a  faculty  called 
Memory,  and  could  be  acted  on  through  the  muscular  integument  by 
appliance  of  birch  rods. 

"  Alas,  so  it  everywhere,  so  will  it  ever  be  !  till  the  Hodrnan  is  dis- 
charged, or  reduced  to  Hodbearing ;  and  an  Architect  is  hired,  and  on 
all  hands  fitly  encouraged:  till  communities  and  individuals  discover, 
not  without  surprise,  that  fashioning  the  souls  of  a  generation  by  Know- 
ledge can  rank  on  a  level  with  blowing  their  bodies  to  pieces  by  Gun- 
powder ;  that  with  Generals  and  Field-marshals  for  killing,  there  should 
be  world-honored  Dignitaries,  and  were  it  possible,  true  God-ordained 
priests,  for  teaching.  But  as  yet,  though  the  Soldier  wears  openly,  and 
even  parades,  his  butchering-tool,  nowhere,  far  as  I  have  travelled,  did 
the  Schoolmaster  make  show  of  his  instructing-tool ;  nay,  were  he  to 
walk  abroad  with  birch  girt  on  thigh,  as  if  he  therefrom  expected 
honor,  would  not,  among  the  idler  class,  a  certain  levity  be  excited  1" 

In  the  third  year  of  this  Gymnasic  period,  Father  Andreas  seems  to 
have  died :  the  young  Scholar,  otherwise  so  maltreated,  saw  himself  for 
the  first  time  clad  outwardly  in  sables,  and  inwardly  in  quite  inexpressi- 
ble melancholy.  "  The  dark  bottomless  Abyss,  that  lies  under  our  feet, 
had  yawned  open ;  the  pale  kingdoms  of  Death,  with  all  their  innumer- 
able silent  nations  and  generations  stood  before  him;  the  inexorable 
word,  Never  !  now  first  showed  its  meaning.  My  mother  wept,  and  her 
sorrow  got  vent;  but  in  my  heart  there  lay  a  whole  lake  of  tears,  pent 
up  in  silent  desolation.  Nevertheless,  the  unworn  Spirit  is  strong ;  Life 
is  so  healthful  that  it  even  finds  nourishment  in  Death  :  these  stern  ex- 
periences, planted  down  by  Memory  in  my  Imagination,  rose  there  to  a 
whole  cypress  forest,  sad  but  beautiful ;  waving,  with  not  unmelodious 
sighs,  in  dark  luxuriance,  in  the  hottest  sunshine,  through  long  years  of 
youth : — as  in  manhood  also  it  does,  and  will  do ;  for  I  have  now  pitched 
my  tent  under  a  Cypress  tree  ;  the  Tomb  is  now  my  inexpungable  For- 
tress, ever  close  by  the  gate  of  which  I  look  upon  the  hostile  armaments, 
and  pains  and  penalties,  of  tyrannous  Life  placidly  enough,  and  listen 
to  its  loudest  threatenings  with  a  still  smile.  O  ye  loved  ones,  that  alrea- 
dy sleep  in  the  noiseless  Bed  of  Rest,  whom  in  life  I  could  only  weep  for 
and  never  help ;  and  ye,  who  wide-scattered  still  toil  lonely  in  the  mon- 
ster-bearing Desert,  dyeing  the  flinty  ground  with  your  blood, — yet  a  lit- 
tle while,  and  we  shall  all  meet  there,  and  our  Mother's  bosom  will 
screen  us  all;  and  Oppression's  harness,  and  Sorrow's  fire-whip, and  all 
the  Gehenna  Bailiffs  that  patrol  and  inhabit  ever- vexed  Time,  cannot 
thenceforth  harm  us  any  more !  " 

Close  by  which  rather  beautiful  apostrophe,  lies  a  labored  Character 
of  the  deceased  Andreas  Futteral;  of  his  natural  ability,  his  deserts  in 
life  (as  Prussian  Sergeant)  ;  with  long  historical  inquiries  into  the  gene- 
alogy of  the  Futteral  family,  here  traced  back  as  far  as  Henry  the 
Fowler :  the  whole  of  which  we  pass  over,  not  without  astonishment.  It 
only  concerns  us  to  add  that  now  was  the  time  when  Mother  Gretchen 
revealed  to  her  foster-son  that  he  was  not  at  all  of  this  kindred :  or  indeed 
of  any  kindred,  having  come  into  historical  existence  in  the  way  already 
known  to  us.  "  Thus  was  I  doubly  orphaned,"  says  he,  "  bereft  not  only 
of  Possession,  but  even  of  Remembrance.  Sorrow  and  Wonder,  here 
suddenly  united,  could  not  but  produce  abundant  fruit.  Such  a  dis- 
closure, in  such  a  season,  struck  its  roots  through  my  whole  nature : 


50 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


ever  till  the  years  of  mature  manhood,  it  mingled  with  my  -whole 
thoughts,  was  as  the  stem  whereon  all  my  day-dreams  and  night- 
dreams  grew.  A  certain  poetic  elevation,  yet  also  a  correspond- 
ing civic  depression,  it  naturally  imparted:  J  was  like  no  other;  in 
which  fixed-idea,  leading  sometimes  to  highest,  and  ollener  to  frightful- 
est  results,  may  there  not  lie  the  first  spring  of  Tendencies,  that  in  my 
Life  have  become  remarkable  enough  1  As  in  birth,  so  in  action,  spe- 
culation, and  social  position,  my  fellows  are  perhaps  not  numerous." 

In  the  Bag  Sagittarius,  as  we  at  length  discover,  Teufelsdrockh  has 
become  a  University  man ;  though  how,  when,  or  of  what  quality,  will 
nowhere  disclose  itself  with  the  smallest  certainty.  Few  things,  in  the 
way  of  confusion  and  capricious  indistinctness,  can  now  surprise  our 
readers ;  not  even  the  total  want  of  dates,  almost  without  a  parallel  in  a 
Biographical  work.  So  enigmatic,  so  chaotic  we  have  always  found, 
and  must  always  look  to  find,  these  scattered  Leaves.  In  Sagittarius, 
however,  Teufelsdrockh  begins  to  show  himself  even  more  than  usually 
Sibylline :  fragments  of  all  sorts ;  scraps  of  regular  Memoir,  College 
Exercises,  Programs,  Professional  Testimoninms,  Milkscores,  torn  Bil- 
lets, sometimes  to  appearance  of  an  amatory  cast;  all  blown  together  as 
if  by  merest  chance,  henceforth  beAvilder  the  sane  Historian.  To  com- 
bine any  picture  of  these  University,  and  the  subsequent,  years ;  much 
more,  to  decipher  therein  any  illustrative  primordial  elements  of  the 
Clothes-Philosophy,  becomes  such  a  problem  as  the  reader  may  imagine. 

So  much  we  can  see;  darkly,  as  through  the  foliage  of  some  waver- 
ing thicket:  a  youth  of  no  common  endowment,  that  has  passed  happily 
through  Childhood,  less  happily  yet  still  vigorously  through  Boyhood, 
now  at  length  perfect  in  "  dead  vocables,"  and  set  down  as  he  hopes,  by 
the  living  Fountain,  there  to  superadd  Ideas  and  Capabilities.  From 
such  Fountain  he  draws,  diligently,  thirstily,  yet  nowise  with  his  whole 
heart,  for  the  water  nowise  suits  his  palate ;  discouragements,  entangle- 
ments, aberrations  are  discoverable  or  supposable.  Nor  perhaps  are 
even  pecuniary  distresses  wanting ;  for  "  the  good  Gretchen,  who  in 
spite  of  advices  from  not  disinterested  relatives  has  sent  him  hither,  must 
after  a  time  withdraw  her  willing  but  too  feeble  hand."  Nevertheless 
;n  an  atmosphere  of  Poverty  and  manifold  Chagrin,  the  Humor  of  that 
young  Soul,  what  character  is  in  him,  first  decisively  reveals  itself;  and, 
like  strong  sunshine  in  weeping  skies,  gives  out  variety  of  colors,  some 
of  which  are  prismatic.  Thus  with  the  aid  of  Time,  and  of  what  Time 
brings,  has  the  stripling  Diogenes  Teufelsdrockh  waxed  into  manly 
stature ;  and  into  so  questionable  an  aspect,  that  we  ask  with  new  eager- 
ness How  he  specially  came  by  it,  and  regret  anew  that  there  is  no  more 
explicit  answer.  Certain  of  the  intelligible  and  partially  significant 
fragments,  which  are  few  in  number,  shall  be  extracted  from  that  Limbo 
of  a  Paperbag,  and  presented  with  the  usual  preparation. 

As  if,  in  the  Bag  Scorpio,  Teufelsdrockh  had  not  already  expectorat- 
ed his  antipedagogic  spleen  ;  as  if,  from  the  name  Sagittarius,  he  had 
thought  himself  called  upon  to  shoot  arrows,  we  here  again  fall  in  with 
such  matter  as  this:  "  The  University  where  I  was  educated  still  stands 
vivid  enough  in  my  remembrance,  and  I  know  its  name  well ;  which 
name,  however,  I,  from  tenderness  to  existing  interests  and  persons, 
shall  in  no  wise  divulge.  It  is  my  painful  duty  to  say  that,  out  of  Eng- 
land and  Spain,  ours  was  the  worst  of  all  hitherto  discovered  Universi- 
ties. This  is  indeed  a  time  when  right  Education  is,  as  nearly  as  may 
be,  impossible :  however,  in  degrees  of  wrongness  there  is  no  limit :  nay, 
I  can  conceive  a  worse  system  than  that  of  the  Nameless  itself;  as  poi- 
soned victual  maybe  worse  than  absolute  hunger. 

"  It  is  written,  When  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  shall  fall  into  the 
ditch  :  wherefore,  in  such  circumstances,  may  it  not  sometimes  be  safer, 


PEDAGOGY. 


51 


if  both  leader  and  led  simply — sit  still?  Had  yoi,  anywhere  in  Crirn 
Tartary,  walled  in  a  square  enclosure;  furnished  it  with  a  small,  ill- 
chosen  Library;  and  then  turned  loose  into  it  eleven  hundred  Christian 
striplings,  to  tumble  about  as  they  listed,  from  three  to  seven  years ;  cer- 
tain persons,  under  the  title  of  Professors,  being  stationed  at  the  gates,  to 
declare  aloud  that  it  was  a  University,  and  exact  considerable  admission 
fees, — you  had,  not  indeed  in  mechanical  structure,  yet  in  spirit  and  re- 
sult, some  imperfect  resemblance  of  our  High  Seminary.  I  say,  imper- 
fect; for  if  our  mechanical  structure  was  quite  other,  so  neither  was  our 
result  altogether  the  same  :  unhappily,  we  were  not  in  Crim  Tartary, 
but  in  a  corrupt  European  city,  full  of  smoke  and  sin  ;  moreover,  in  the 
middle  of  a  Public,  which,  without  far  costlier  apparatus,  than  that  of 
the  Square  Enclosure,  and  Declaration  aloud,  you  could  not  be  sure  of 
gulling. 

"  Gullible,  however,  by  fit  apparatus,  all  Publics  are ;  and  gulled, 
with  the  most  surprising  profit.  Towards  anything  like  a  Statistics  of 
Imposture,  indeed,  little  as  yet  has  been  done :  with  a  strange  indiffer- 
ence, our  Economists,  nigh  buried  under  tables  for  minor  Branches  of 
Industry,  have  altogether  overlooked  the  grand  all-overtopping  Hypo- 
crisy Branch ;  as  if  our  whole  arts  of  Puffery,  of  Gtuackery,  Priestcraft, 
Kingcraft,  and  the  innumerable  other  crafts  and  mysteries  of  that  genus, 
had  not  ranked  in  Productive  Industry  at  all !  Can  any  one,  for  exam- 
ple, so  much  as  say,  What  monies,  in  Literature  and  Shoeblacking,  are 
realised  by  actual  Instruction  and  actual  jet  Polish ;  what  by  fictitious- 
persuasive  Proclamation  of  such ;  specifying,  in  distinct  items,  the  dis- 
tributions, circulations,  disbursements,  incoming  of  said  monies,  with 
the  smallest  approach  to  accuracy  1  But  to  ask,  How  far,  in  all  the  se- 
veral infinitely  complected  departments  of  social  business,  in  govern- 
ment, education,  in  manual,  commercial,  intellectual  fabrication  of  every 
sort,  man's  Want  is  supplied  by  true  Ware  ;  how  far  by  the  mere  Ap- 
pearance of  true  Ware : — in  other  words,  To  what  extent,  by  what  me- 
thods, with  what  effects,  in  various  times  and  countries,  Deception  takes 
the  place  and  wages  of  Performance  :  here  truly  is  an  Inquiry  big  with 
results  for  the  future  time,  but  to  which  hitherto  only  the  vaguest  answer 
can  be  given.  If  for  the  present,  in  our  Europe,  we  estimate  the  ratio 
of  Ware  to  appearance  of  Ware  so  high  even  as  at  One  to  a  Hundred 
(which,  considering  the  Wages  of  a  Pope,  Russian  Autocrat,  or  English 
Game-preserver,  is  probably  not  far  from  the  mark), — what  almost  pro- 
digious saving  may  there  not  be  anticipated,  as  the  Statistics  of  Impos- 
ture advances,  and  so  the  manufacturing  of  Shams  (that  of  Realities 
rising  into  clearer  and  clearer  distinction  therefrom)  gradually  declines, 
and  at  length  becomes  all  but  wholly  unnecessary ! 

"  This  for  the  coming  golden  ages.  What  I  had  to  remark,  for  the 
present  brazen  one,  is,  that  in  several  provinces,  as  in  Education,  Polity, 
Religion,  where  so  much  is  wanted  and  indispensable,  and  so  little  can 
as  yet  be  furnished,  probably  Imposture  is  of  sanative,  anodyne  nature, 
and  man's  Gullibility  not  his  worst  blessing.  Suppose  your  sinews  of 
war  quite  broken  ;  I  mean  your  military  chest  insolvent,  forage  all  but 
exhausted ;  and  that  the  whole  army  is  about  to  mutiny,  disband,  and 
cut  your  and  each  other's  throat, — then  were  it  not  well  could  you,  as  if 
by  miracle,  pay  them  in  any  sort  of  fairy-money,  feed  them  on  coagulat- 
ed water,  or  mere  imagination  of  meat ;  whereby,  till  the  real  supply 
came  up,  they  might  be  kept  together,  and  quiet  ?  Such  perhaps  was 
the  aim  of  Nature,  who  does  nothing  without  aim,  in  furnishing  her  fa- 
vorite, Man,  with  this  his  so  omnipotent  or  rather  omni-patient  Talent 
of  being  Gulled. 

"How  beautifully  it  works,  with  a  little  mechanism;  nay,  almost 
makes  mechanism  for  itself!    These  Professors  in  the  Nameless  lived 


52 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


with  ease,  with  safety,  by  a  mere  Reputation,  constructed  in  past  times, 
and  then,  too,  with  no  great  effort,  by  quite  another  class  of  persons. 
Which  Reputation,  like  a  strong  brisk-going  undershot-wheel,  sunk  into 
the  general  current,  bade  fair,  with  only  a  little  annual  repainting  on 
their  pari,  to  hold  long  together,  and  of  its  own  accord  assiduously  grind 
for  them.  Happy  that  it  was  so  for  the  Millers!  They  themselves 
needed  not  to  work ;  their  attempts  at  working,  at  what  they  called  Edu- 
cating, now  when  I  look  back  on  it,  fill  me  with  a  certain  mute  admira- 
tion. 

"  Besides  all  this  we  boasted  ourselves  a  Rational  University ;  in  the 
highest  degree,  hostile  to  Mysticism;  thus  was  the  young  vacant  mind 
furnished  with  much  talk  about  Progress  of  the  Species,  Dark  Ages, 
Prejudice,  and  the  like ;  so  that  all  were  quickly  enough  blown  out  into 
a  state  of  windy  argumentativeness ;  whereby  the  better  sort  must  soon 
end  in  sick,  impotent  Scepticism ;  the  worser  sort  explode  (crepiren)  in 
finished  Self-conceit  and  to  all  spiritual  intents  become  dead. — But  this 
too  is  a  portion  of  mankind's  lot.  If  our  era  is  the  Era  of  Unbelief, 
why  murmur  under  it ;  is  there  not  a  better  coming,  nay,  come  1  As  in 
longdrawn  Systole  and  longdrawn  Diastole,  must  the  period  of  Faith 
alternate  with  the  period  of  Denial ;  must  the  vernal  growth,  the  sum- 
mer luxuriance  of  all  Opinions,  Spiritual  Representations  and  Creations, 
be  followed  by,  and  again  follow,  the  autumnal  decay,  the  winter  disso- 
lution. For  man  lives  in  Time,  has  his  whole  earthly  being,  endeavor, 
and  destiny  shaped  for  him  by  Time  :  only  in  the  transitory  Time-Sym- 
bol is  the  ever-motionless  Eternity  we  stand  on  made  manifest.  And 
yet,  in  such  winter-seasons  of  Denial,  it  is  for  the  nobler-minded  per- 
haps a  comparative  misery  to  have  been  born,  and  to  be  awake,  and 
work ;  and  for  the  duller  a  felicity,  if  like  hibernating  animals,  safe- 
lodged  in  some  Salamanca  University,  or  Sybaris  City,  or  other  super- 
stitious or  voluptuous  Castle  of  Indolence,  they  can  slumber  through,  in 
stupid  dreams,  and  only  awaken  when  the  loud-roaring  hailstorms  have 
all  done  their  work,  and  to  our  prayers  and  martyrdoms  the  new  Spring 
has  been  vouchsafed." 

That  in  the  environment,  here  mysteriously  enough  shadowed  forth, 
Teufelsdrockh  must  have  felt  ill  at  ease,  cannot  be  doubtful.  "  The 
hungry  young,"  he  says,  "  looked  up  to  their  spiritual  Nurses ;  and,  for 
food,  were  bidden  eat  the  east  wind.  What  vain  jargon  of  controversial 
Metaphysic,  Etymology,  and  mechanical  Manipulation  falsely  named 
Science,  was  current  there,  I  indeed  learned,  better  perhaps  than  the 
most.  Among  eleven  hundred  Christian  youths,  there  will  not  be  want- 
ing some  eleven  eager  to  learn.  By  collision  with  such,  a  certain  warmth; 
a  certain  polish  was  communicated :  by  instinct  and  happy  accident,  I 
took  less  to  rioting  (renommiren),  than  to  thinking  and  reading,  which 
latter  also  I  was  free  to  do.  Nay,  from  the  chaos  of  that  Library,  I  suc- 
ceeded in  fishing  up  more  books  perhaps  than  had  been  known  to  the 
very  keepers  thereof.  The  foundation  of  a  Literary  Life  was  hereby 
laid :  I  learned,  on  my  own  strength,  to  read  fluently  in  almost  all  culti- 
vated languages,  on  almost  all  subjects,  and  sciences ;  farther,  as  man  is 
ever  the  prime  object  to  man,  already  it  was  my  favorite  employment  to 
read  character  in  speculation,  and  from  the  Writing  to  construe  the 
Writer.  A  certain  groundplan  of  Human  Nature  and  Life  began  to 
fashion  itself  in  me  ;  wondrous  enough,  now  when  I  look  back  on  it ; 
for  my  whole  Universe,  physical  and  spiritual,  was  as  yet  a  machine  ! 
However,  such  a  conscious,  recognized  groundplan,  the  truest  I  had,  was 
beginning  to  be  there,  and  by  additional  experiments,  might  be  corrected 
and  indefinitely  extended." 

Thus  from  poverty  does  the  strong  educe  nobler  wealth  ;  thus  in  the 
destitution  of  the  wild  desert,  does  our  young  Ishmael  acquire  for  him- 


PEDAGOGY. 


53 


self  the  highest  of  all  possessions^  that  of  Self-help.  Nevertheless  a 
desert  this  was,  waste,  and  howling  with  savage  monsters.  Teufels- 
drockh  gives  us  long  details  of  his  "  fever-paroxysms  of  Doubt ;"  ki. 
Inquiries  concerning  Miracles,  and  the  Evidences  of  Religious  Faith 
and  how  "  in  the  silent  night-watches,  still  darker  in  his  heart  than  over 
sky  and  earth,  he  has  cast  himself  before  the  All-seeing,  and  with  audi- 
ble prayers,  cried  vehemently  for  Light,  for  deliverance  from  Death  and 
the  Grave.  Not  till  after  long  years,  and  unspeakable  agonies,  did  the 
believing  heart  surrender;  sink  into  spell-bound  sleep,  under  the  night- 
mare, Unbelief;  and,  in  this  hag-ridden  dream,  mistake  God's  fair  liv- 
ing world  for  a  pallid,  vacant  Hades  and  extinct  Pandemonium.  But 
through  such  Purgatory  pain,"  continues  he,  "it  is  appointed  us  to  pass:, 
first  must  the  dead  Letter  of  Religion  own  itself  dead,  and  drop  piece-1 
meal  into  dust,  if  the  living  Spirit  of  Religion,  freed  from  this  its  char- 
nel-house, is  to  arise  on  us,  newborn  of  Heaven,  and  with  new-healing 
under  its  wings." 

To  which  Purgatory  pains,  seemingly  severe  enough,  if  we  add  a 
liberal  measure  of  Earthly  distresses,  want  of  practical  guidance,  want  of 
sympathy,  want  of  money,  want  of  hope;  and  all  this  in  ihe  fervid  sea- 
son of  youth,  so  exaggerated  in  imagining,  so  boundless  in  desires, 
yet  here  so  poor  in  means, — do  we  not  see  a  strong  incipient  spirit  op- 
pressed and  overloaded  from  without  and  from  within ;  the  fire  of  genius 
struggling  up  among  fuel-wood  of  the  greenest,  and  as  yet  with  more 
of  bitter  vapor  than  of  clear  flame  7 

From  various  fragments  of  Letters  and  other  documentary  scraps,  it 
is  to  be  inferred  that  Teufelsdrdckh,  isolated,  shy,  retiring  as  he  was, 
had  not  altogether  escaped  notice  ;  certain  established  men  are  aware  of 
his  existence  ;  and,  if  stretching  out  no  helpful  hand,  have  at  least  their 
eyes  on  him.  He  appears,  though  in  dreary  enough  humor,  to  be  ad- 
dressing himself  to  the  Profession  of  Law ;  whereof,  indeed,  the  world 
has  seen  him  a  public  graduate.  But  omitting  these  broken,  unsatisfac- 
tory thrums  of  Economical  relation,  let  us  present  rather  the  following 
small  thread  of  Moral  relation ;  and  therewith,  the  reader  for  himself 
weaving  it  in  at  the  right  place,  conclude  our  dim  arras-picture  of  these 
University  years. 

"  Here  also  it  was  that  I  formed  acquaintance  with  Herr  Towgood,  or, 
as  it  is  perhaps  better  written,  Herr  Toughgut ;  a  young  person  of*  quality 
{von  Adel),  from  the  interior  pans  of  England.  He  stood  connected,  by 
blood  and  hospitality,  with  the  Counts  von  Zahdarm,  in  this  quarter  of 
Germany ;  to  which  noble  Family  I  likewise  was,  by  his  means,  with 
all  friendliness  brought  near.  Towgood  had  a  fair  talent,  unspeakably 
ill-cultivated;  with  considerable  humor  of  character:  and,  bating  his 
total  ignorance,  for  he  knew  nothing  except  Boxing  and  a  little  Gram- 
mar, showed  less  of  that  aristocratic  impassivity,  and  silent  fury,  than 
for  most  part  belongs  to  Travellers  of  his  nation.  To  him  I  owe  my  first 
practical  knowledge  of  the  English  and  their  ways  ;  perhaps  also  some- 
thing of  the  partiality  with  which  I  have  ever  since  regarded  that 
singular  people.  Towgood  was  not  without  an  eye,  could  he  have  come 
at  any  light.  Invited  doubtless  by  the  presence  of  the  Zahdarm  Family, 
he  had  travelled  hither,  in  the  almost  frantic  hope  of  perfecting  his 
studies  ;  he,  whose  studies  had  been  as  yet  those  of  infancy,  hither  to  a 
University  where  so  much  as  the  notion  of  perfection,  not  to  say  the 
effort  after  it,  no  longer  existed !  Often  we  would  condole  over  the  hard 
destiny  of  the  Young  in  this  era :  how,  after  all  our  toil,  we  were  to  be 
turned  out  into  the  world,  with  beards  on  our  chins  indeed,  but  with  few 
other  attributes  of  manhood  ;  no  existing  thing  that  we  were  trained  to 
'  Act  on,  nothing  that  we  could  so  much  as  Believe.  'How  has  our 
head  on  the  outside  a  polished  Hat,'  would  Towgood  exclaim,  '  and  in 
V 


54 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


the  inside  Vacancy,  or  a  froth  of  Vocables  and  Attorney  Logic !  At  a 
small  cost  men  are  educated  to  make  leather  into  shoes ;  but,  at  a  great 
:  cost,  what  am  I  educated  to  make  ?  By  Heaven,  Brother !  what  I  have 
.  already  eaten  and  worn,  as  I  came  thus  far,  would  endow  a  considerable 
Hospital  of  Incurables.' — '  Man,  indeed,'  I  would  answer,  '  has  a  Diges- 
tive Faculty,  which  must  be  kept  working,  were  it  even  partly  by  stealth. 
But  as  for  our  Miseducation,  make  not  bad  worse;  waste  not  the  time 
yet  ours,  in  trampling  on  thistles  because  they  have  yielded  us  no  figs. 
Frisch  zu,  Bruder  t  Here  are  Books,  and  we  have  brains  to  read  them ; 
here  is  a  whole  Earth  and  a  whole  Heaven,  and  we  have  eyes  to  look 
on  them :  Frisch  zu  f 

"  Often  also  our  talk  was  gay  ;  not  without  brilliancy,  and  even  fire. 
We  looked  out  on  Life,  with  its  strange  scaffolding,  where  all  at  once 
harlequins  dance,  and  men  are  beheaded  and  quartered :  motley,  not  un- 
terrific  was  the  aspect;  but  we  looked  on  it  like  brave  youths.  For  my- 
self, these  were  perhaps  my  most  genial  hours.  Towards  this  young 
warmhearted,  strongheaded  and  wrongheaded  Herr  Towgood,  I  was 
even  near  experiencing  the  now  obsolete  sentiment  of  Friendship.  Yes, 
foolish  Heathen  that  1  was,  I  felt  that,  under  certain  conditions,  I  could 
have  loved  this  man,  and  taken  him  to  my  bosom,  and  been  his  brother 
once  and  always.  By  degrees,  however,  I  understood  the  new  time,  and 
its  wants.  If  man's  Soul  is  indeed,  as  in  the  Finnish  Language,  and 
Utilitarian  Philosophy,  a  kind  of  Stomach,  what  else  is  the  true  meaning 
of  Spiritual  Union  but  an  Eating  together'?  Thus  we,  instead  of 
Friends,  are  Dinner-guests ;  and  here  as  elsewhere  have  cast  away 
chimeras." 

So  ends,  abruptly  as  is  usual,  and  enigmatically,  this  little  incipient 
romance.  What  henceforth  becomes  of  the  brave  Herr  Towgood,  or 
Toughgut  ?  He  has  dived  under,  in  the  Autobiographical  Chaos,  and 
swims  we  see  not  where.  Does  any  reader  "  in  the  interior  parts  of 
England"  know  of  such  a  man  1 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GETTING  UNDER  WAY. 

"  Thus  nevertheless,"  writes  our  Autobiographer,  apparently  as  quit- 
ting College,  "was  there  realised  Somewhat;  namely,  I,  Diogenes  Teu- 
felsdrockh :  a  visible  Temporary  Figure  (Zeitbild),  occupying  some 
cubic  feet  of  Space,  and  containing  within  it  Forces  both  physical  and 
spiritual;  hopes,  passions,  thoughts;  the  whole  wondrous  furniture,  in 
more  or  less  perfection,  belonging  to  that  mystery,  a  Man.  Capabilities 
there  were  in  me  to  give  battle,  in  some  small  degree,  against  the  great 
Empire  of  Darkness :  does  not  the  very  Ditcher  and  Delver,  with  his 
spade,  extinguish  many  a  thistle  and  puddle;  and  so  leave  a  little  Order, 
where  he  found  the  opposite  1  Nay  your  very  Day-moth  has  capabili- 
ties in  this  kind;  and  ever  organizes  something  (into  its  own  Body,  if 
no  otherwise),  which  was  before  Inorganic;  and  of  mute  dead  air  makes 
living  music,  though  only  of  the  faintest,  by  humming. 

"  How  much  more  one  whose  capabilities  are  spiritual ;  who  has 
learned,  or  begun  learning,  the  grand  thaumaturgic  art  of  Thought! 
Thaumaturgic  I  name  it;  for  hitherto  all  Miracles  have  been  wrought 
thereby,  and  henceforth  innumerable  will  be  wrought ;  whereof  we,  even 
hi  these  days,  witness  some.  Of  the  Poet's  and  Prophet's  inspired  Mes- 
sage, and  how  it  makes  and  unmakes  whole  worlds.  I  shall  forbear  men- 
tion :  but  cannot  the  dullest  hear  Steam-engines  clanking  around  him  ? 
Has  he  not  seen  the  Scottish  Brassmith's  Idea  (and  this  but  a  meeham- 

/ 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY. 


53 


cal  one)  travelling  on  fire-wings  round  the  Cape,  and  across  two  Oceans ; 
and  stronger  than  any  other  Enchanter's  Familiar,  on  all  hands  unvvea- 
riedly  fetching  and  carrying:  at  home,  not  only  weaving  Cloth;  but  ra- 
pidly enough  overturning  the  whole  old  system  of  Society;  and,  for  Feu- 
dalism and  Preservation  of  the  Game,  preparing  us,  by  indirect  but  sure 
methods,  Industrialism  and  the  Government  of  the  Wisest.  Truly  a 
Thinking  Man  is  the  worst  enemy  the  Prince  of  Darkness  can  have ; 
every  time  such  a  one  announces  himself,  I  doubt  not,  there  runs  a  shud- 
der through  the  Nether  Empire  ;  and  new  Emissaries  are  trained,  with 
new  tactics,  to,  if  possible,  entrap  him,  and  hoodwink  and  handcuff  him. 

"  With  such  high  vocation  had  I  too,  as  denizen  of  the  Universe, 
been  called.  Unhappy  it  is,  however,  that  though  born  to  the  amplest 
Sovereignty,  in  this  way,  with  no  less  than  sovereign  right  of  Peace  and 
War  against  the  Time-Prince  (Zcitfiirst),  or  Devil,  and  all  his  Domi- 
nions, your  coronation  ceremony  costs  such  trouble,  your  sceptre  is  so 
difficult  to  get  at,  or  even  to  get  eye  on  !" 

By  which  last  wiredrawn  similitude,  does  Teufelsdrockh  mean  no 
more  than  that  young  men  find  obstacles  in  what  we  call  ';  getting  under 
way  1"  "  Not  what  I  Have,"  continues  he,  "  but  what  I  Do  is  my  King- 
dom. To  each  is  given  a  certain  inward  Talent,  a  certain  outward  En- 
vironment of  Fortune ;  to  each,  by  wisest  combination  of  these  two,  a 
certain  maximum  of  Capability.  But  the  hardest  problem  were  ever 
this  first :  To  find  by  study  of  yourself,  and  of  the  groimd  you  stand  on, 
what  your  combined  inward  and  outward  Capability  specially  is.  For, 
alas,  our  young  soul  is  all  budding  with  Capabilities,  and  we  see  not  yet 
which  is  the  main  and  true  one.  Always  too  the  new  man  is  in  a  new 
time,  under  new  conditions ;  his  course  can  be  the  facsimile  of  no  prior 
one,  but  is  by  its  nature  original.  And  then  how  seldom  will  the  out- 
ward Capability  fit  the  inward :  though  talented  wonderfully  enough, 
we  are  poor,  unfriended,  dyspeptical,  bashful ;  nay  what  is  worse  than 
all,  we  are  foolish.  Thus,  in  a  whole  imbroglio  of  Capabilities,  we  go 
stupidly  groping  about,  to  grope  which  is  ours,  and  often  clutch  the 
wrong  one :  in  this  mad  work,  must  several  years  of  our  small  term  be 
spent,  till  the  purblind  Youth,  by  practice,  acquire  notions  of  distance, 
and  become  a  seeing  Man.  Nay,  many  so  spend  their  whole  term,  and 
in  ever  new  expectation,  ever  new  disappointment,  shift  from  enterprise 
to  enterprise,  and  from  side  to  side ;  till  at  length,  as  exasperated  strip- 
lings of  threescore  and  ten,  they  shift  into  their  last  enterprise,  that  of 
getting  buried. 

"  Such,  since  the  most  of  us  are  too  ophthalmic,  would  be  the  general 
fate ;  were  it  not  that  one  thing  saves  us :  our  Hunger.  For  on  this 
ground,  as  the  prompt  nature  of  Hunger  is  well  known,  must  a  prompt 
choice  be  made :  hence  have  we,  with  wise  foresight,  Indentures  and 
Apprenticeships  for  our  irrational  young ;  whereby,  in  due  season,  the 
vague  universality  of  a  Man  shall  find  himself  ready-moulded  into  a 
specific  Craftsman ;  and  so  thenceforth  work,  with  much  or  with  little 
waste  of  Capability  as  it  may  be  ;  yet  not  with  the  worst  waste,  that  of 
time.  Nay  even  in  matters  spiritual,  since  the  spiritual  artist  too  is  born 
blind,  and  does  not,  like  certain  other  creatures,  receive  sight  in  nine 
days,  but  far  later,  sometimes  never, — is  it  not  well  that  there  should  be 
what  we  call  Professions,  or  Bread-studies  (Brodtzwecke),  preappointed 
us  1  Here,  circling  like  the  gin-horse,  for  whom  partial  or  total  blind- 
ness is  no  evil,  the  Bread-artist  can  travel  contentedly  round  and  round, 
still  fancying  that  it  is  forward  and  forward,  and  realise  much :  for  him- 
self victual ;  for  the  world  an  additional  horse's  power  in  the  grand 
corn-mill  or  hemp-mill  of  Economic  Society.  For  me  too  had  such  a 
leading-string  been  provided :  only  that  it  proved  a  neck-halter,  and  had 
nigh  throttled  me,  till  I  broke  it  off".    Then,  in  the  words  of  Ancient 


56 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


Pistol,  did  the  "World  generally  become  mine  oyster,  which  I,  by  strength 
or  cunning,  was  to  open,  as  I  would  and  could.  Almost  had  1  deceased 
{fast  war  ich  umgekommen),  so  obstinately  did  it  continue  shut." 

We  see  here,  significantly  foreshadowed,  the  spirit  of  much  that  was 
to  befall  our  Autobiographer ;  the  historical  embodyment  of  which,  as  it 
painfully  takes  shape  in  his  Life,  lies  scattered,  in  dim  disastrous  details, 
through  this  Bag  Pisces,  and  those  that  follow.  A  young  man  of  high 
talent,  and  high  though  still  temper,  like  a  young  mettled  colt,  "  breaks 
off  his  neck-halter,"  and  bounds  forth  from  his  peculiar  manger,  into  the 
wide  world ;  which,  alas,  he  finds  all  rigorously  fenced  in.  Riche-t 
clover-fields  tempt  his  eye  ;  but  to  him  they  are  forbidden  pasture  :  either 
pining  in  progressive  starvation,  he  must  stand ;  or,  in  mad  exaspera- 
tion, must  rush  to  and  fro,  leaping  against  sheer  stone-walls,  which  he 
cannot  leap  over,  which  only  lacerate  and  lame  him ;  till  at  last,  after 
thousand  attempts  and  endurances,  he,  as  if  by  miracle,  clears  his  way; 
not  indeed  into  luxuriant  and  luxurious  clover,  yet  into  a  certain  bosky 
wilderness  where  existence  is  still  possible,  and  Freedom  though  waited 
on  by  Scarcity  is  not  without  sweetness.  In  a  word,  Teufelsdrockh 
having  thrown  up  his  legal  Profession,  finds  himself  without  landmark 
of  outward  guidance ;  whereby  his  previous  want  of  decided  Belief,  or 
inward  guidance,  is  frightfully  aggravated.  Necessity  urges  him  on ; 
Time  will  not  stop,  neither  can  he,  a  Son  of  Time;  wild  passions  with- 
out solacement,  wild  faculties  without  employment,  ever  vex  and  agi- 
tate him.  He,  too,  must  enact  that  stern  Monodrama,  No  Object  and  no 
Rest ;  must  front  its  successive  destinies,  work  through  to  its  catastrophe, 
and  deduce  therefrom  what  moral  he  can. 

Yet  let  us  be  just  to  him,  let  us  admit  that  his  "  neck-halter"  sat  no- 
wise easy  on  him ;  that  he  was  in  some  degree  forced  to  break  it  off.  If 
we  look  at  the  young  man's  civic  position,  in  this  Nameless  Capital,  as 
he  emerges  from  its  Nameless  University,  we  can  discern  well  that  it 
was  far  from  enviable.  His  first  Law  Examination  he  has  come 
through  triumphantly ;  and  can  even  boast  that  the  Ezamen  Rigorosum 
need  not  have  frightened  him:  but  though  he  is  hereby  "an  Auscultator 
of  respectability,"  what  avails  it?  There  is  next  to  no  employment  to 
be  had.  Neither,  for  a  youth  without  connexions,  is  the  process  of  Ex- 
pectation very  hopeful  in  itself;  nor  for  one  of  his  disposition  much 
cheered  from  without.  "My  fellow  Auscultators,"  he  says,  "were  Aus- 
cultators:  they  dressed,  and  digested,  and  talked  articulate  words;  other 
vitality  showed  they  almost  none.  Small  speculation  in  those  eyes,  that 
they  did  glare  withal !  Sense  neither  for  the  high  nor  for  the  deep,  nor 
for  aught  human  or  divine,  save  only  for  the  faintest  scent  of  coming  Pre- 
ferment." In  which  words,  indicating  a  total  estrangement  on  the  part 
of  Teufelsdrockh,  may  there  not  also  lurk  traces  of  a  bitterness  as  from 
wounded  vanity  1  Doubtless  these  prosaic  Auscultators  may  have  sniff- 
ed at  him,  with  his  strange  ways ;  and  tried  to  hate,  and,  what  was 
much  more  impossible,  to  despise  him.  Friendly  communion,  in  any 
case,  there  could  not  be:  already  has  the  young  Teufelsdrockh  left  the 
other  young  geese ;  and  swims  apart,  though  as  yet  uncertain  whether 
he  himself  is  cygnet  or  gosling. 

Perhaps,  too,  what  little  employment  he  had  was  performed  ill,  at  best 
unpleasantly.  "  Great  practical  method  and  expertness"  he  may  brag 
of;  but  is  there  not  also  great  practical  pride,  though  deep-hidden,  only 
the  deeper-seated'?  So  shy  a  man  can  never  have  been  popular.  We 
figure  to  ourselve?„how  in  those  days  he  may  have  played  strange  freaks 
with  his  Independence,  and  so  forth  :  do  not  his  own  words  betoken  as 
much  1  "  Like  a  very  young  person,  I  imagined  it  was  with  Work 
alone,  and  not  also  with  Folly  and  Sin,  in  myself  and  others,  that  I  had 
been  appointed  to  struggle."   Be  this  as  it  may,  his  progress  from  the 


GETTING  UNDER  WAY. 


b7 


passive  Auscultatorship,  towards  any  active  Assessorship,  is  evidently 
of  the  slowest.  By  degrees,  those  same  established  men,  once  partially- 
inclined  to  patronise  him,  seem  to  withdraw  their  countenance,  and  give 
him  up  as  "  a  man  of  genius;"  against  which  procedure  he,  in  these  Pa- 
pers, loudly  protests.  "  As  if,"  says  he,  "  the  higher  did  not  presuppose? 
the  lower;  as  if  he  who  can  fly  into  heaven,  could  not  also  walk  post  if 
he  resolved  on  it !  But  the  world  is  an  old  woman,  and  mistakes  any 
gilt  farthing  for  a  gold  coin;  whereby  being  often  cheated  she  will 
thenceforth  trust  nothing  but  the  common  copper." 

How  our  winged  sky-messenger,  unaccepted  as  a  terrestrial  runner, 
contrived,  in  the  meanwhile,  to  keep  himself  from  flying  skyward  with- 
out return,  is  not  too  clear  from  these  Documents.  Good  old  Gretchen 
seems  to  have  vanished  from  the  scene,  perhaps  from  the  Earth;  other 
Horn  of  Plenty,  or  even  of  Parsimony,  nowhere  flows  from  him ;  so  that 
"  the  prompt  nature  of  Hunger  being  well  known,"  we  are  not  without 
our  anxiety.  From  private  Tuition,  in  never  so  many  languages  and 
sciences,  the  aid  derivable  is  small ;  neither,  to  use  his  own  words, 
u  does  the  young  Adventurer  hitherto  suspect  in  himself  any  literary  gift ; 
but  at  best  earns  bread-and-water  wages,  by  his  wide  faculty  of  Trans- 
lation. "  Nevertheless,"  continues  he,  "  that  I  subsisted  is  clear,  for  yoa 
find  me  even  now  alive."  Which  fact,  however,  except  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  our  true-hearted,  kind  old  Proverb,  that  "  there  is  ever  Life  for 
the  Living,"  we  must  profess  ourselves  unable  to  explain. 

Certain  Landlord's  Bills,  and  other  economic  Documents,  bearing  the 
mark  of  Settlement,  indicate  that  he  was  not  without  money ;  but,  like 
an  independent  Hearth-holder,  if  not  House-holder,  paid  his  way. 
Here  also  occur,  among  many  others,  two  little  mutilated  Notes,  which 
perhaps  throw  light  on  his  condition.  The  first  has  now  no  date,  or 
writer's  name,  but  a  huge  Blot;  and  runs  to  this  effect:  "the  {Inkblot), 
tied  down  by  previous  promise,  cannot,  except  by  best  wishes,  forward 
the  Herr  Teufelsdrockh's  views  on  the  Assessorship  in  question ;  and 
sees  himself  under  the  cruel  necessity  of  forbearing  for  the  present,  what 
were  otherwise  his  duty  and  joy,  to  assist  in  opening  the  career  for  a 
man  of  genius,  on  whom  far  higher  triumphs  are  yet  waiting."  The 
other  is  on  gilt  paper ;  and  interests  us  like  a  sort  of  epistolary  mummy 
now  dead,  yet  which  once  lived  and  beneficially  worked.  We  give  it 
in  the  original :  "  Herr  Teufelsdrockh  wird  von  der  Fran  Grafinn,  auf 
Donnerstag,  zum  ^Esthetischen  Thee,  schbnstens  eingeladenP 

Thus,  in  answer  to  a  cry  for  solid  pudding,  whereof  there  is  the  most 
urgent  need,  comes,  epigrammatically  enough,  the  invitation  to  a  wash  of 
quite  fluid  ^Esthetic  Tea!  How  Teufelsdrockh,  now  at  actual  hand- 
grips with  Destiny  herself,  may  have  comported  himself  among  these 
Musical  and  Literary  Dilettanti  of  both  sexes,  like  a  hungry  lion  invited 
to  a  feast  of  chickenweed,  we  can  only  conjecture.  Perhaps  in  expres- 
sive silence  and  abstinence :  otherwise  if  the  lion,  in  such  case,  is  to 
feast  at  all,  it  cannot  be  on  the  chickenweed,  but  only  on  the  chickens. 
For  the  rest,  as  this  Frau  Grafinn  dates  from  the  Zdhdarm  House,  she 
can  be  no  other  than  the  Countess  and  mistress  of  the  same ;  whose  in- 
tellectual tendencies,  and  good  will  to  Teufelsdrockh,  whether  on  the 
footing  of  Herr  Towgood,  or  on  his  own  footing,  are  hereby  manifest. 
That  some  sort  of  relation,  indeed,  continued  for  a  time  to  connect  our 
Autobiographer,  though  perhaps  feebly  enough,  with  this  noble  House, 
we  have  elsewhere  express  evidence.  Doubtless,  if  he  expected  patron- 
age, it  was  in  vain ;  enough  for  him  if  he  here  obtained  occasional 
glimpses  of  the  great  world,  from  which  we  at  one  time  fancied  him  to 
have  been  always  excluded.  t£  The  Znhdarms,"  says  he,  ,!  lived  in  the 
soft,  sumptuous  garniture  of  Aristocracy;  whereto  Literature  and 
Art.  attracted  and  atiached  from  without,  must  serve  as  the  handsomest 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


fringing,  It  was  10  the  Gnddigen  Frau  (her  Ladyship)  that  this  lattet 
improvement  was  due  :  assiduously  she  gathered,  dexterously  she  lilted 
on,  what  fringing  was  to  be  had ;  lace  or  cobweb,  as  the  place  yielded." 
Was  Tenfelsdrdekh  also  a  fringe,  of  lace  or  cobweb ;  or  promising  to 
be  such  1  "  With  His  Ezccllcnz  (the  Count),"  continues  he,  "  I  have 
more  than  once  had  the  honor  to  converse ;  chiefly  on  general  affairs, 
and  the  aspect  of  the  world,  which  he,  though  now  past  middle  life, 
viewed  in  no  unfavorable  light ;  finding  indeed,  except  the  outrooting 
of  Journalism  {die  auszurottende  Jouwialislic),  little  to  desiderate  therein. 
On  some  points,  as  his  Excellenz  was  not  uncholeric,  1  found  it  more 
pleasant  to  keep  silence.  Besides,  his  occupation  being  that  of  Owning 
Land,  there  might  be  faculties  enough,  which,  as  superfluous  for  such 
use,  were  little  developed  in  him." 

That  to  Teufelsdrockh  the  aspect  of  the  world  was  nowise  so  fault- 
less, and  many  things,  besides  the  "  Outrooting  of  Journalism,"  might 
have  seemed  improvements,  we  can  readily  conjecture.  With  nothing 
but  a  barren  Ausculratorship  from  without,  and  so  many  mutinous 
thoughts  and  wishes  from  within,  his  position  was  no  easy  one.  "  The 
Universe,"  he  says,  "  was  as  a  mighty  Sphinx-riddle,  which  I  knew 
so  little  of,  yet  must  rede,  or  be  devoured.  In  red  streaks  of  unspeaka- 
ble grandeur,  yet  also  in  the  blackness  of  darkness,  was  Life,  to  my  too- 
unfurnished  Thought,  unfolding  itself.  A  strange  contradiction  lay  in 
me;  and  las  yet  knew  not  the  solution  of  it;  knew  not  that  spiritual 
music  can  spring  only  from  discords  set  in  unison:  that  but  for  Evil 
there  were  no  Good,  as  victory  is  only  possible  by  Battle." 

"  I  have  heard  affirmed  (surely  in  jest),"  observes  he  elsewhere,  "  by 
not  unphilanthropic  persons,  that  it  were  a  real  increase  of  human  hap- 
piness, could  all  young  men  under  the  age  of  nineteen  be  covered  under 
barrels,  or  rendered  otherwise  invisible ;  and  there  left  to  follow  their 
lawful  studies  and  callings,  till  they  emerged,  sadder  and  wiser,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-five.  With  which  suggestion,  at  least  as  considered  in 
the  light  of  a  practical  scheme,  I  need  scarcely  say  I  nowise  coincide. 
Nevertheless  it  is  plausibly  urged  that,  as  young  ladies  (Mddchen)  are, 
to  mankind,  precisely  the  most  delightful  in  those  years ;  so  young  gen- 
tlemen (Bubchen)  do  then  attain  their  maximum  of  detestability.  S,uch 
gawks  (Gecken)  are  they,  and  foolish  peacocks,  and  yet  with  such  a 
vulturous  hunger  for  self-indulgence ;  so  obstinate,  obstreperous,  vain- 
glorious ;  in  all  senses  so  froward  and  so  forward.  No  mortal's  endea- 
vor or  attainment  will  in  the  smallest  content  the  as  yet  unendeavoring, 
unattaining  young  gentleman ;  but  he  could  make  it  all  infinitely  better, 
and  more  worthy  of  him.  Life  everywhere  is  the  most  manageable 
matter,  simple  as  a  question  in  the  Rule  of  Three  :  multiply  your  second 
and  third  term  together,  divide  the  product  by  the  first,  and  your  quo- 
tient will  be  the  answer — which  you  are  but  an  ass  if  you  cannot  come 
at.  The  booby  has  not  yet  found  out,  by  any  trial,  that,  do  what  one 
will,  there  is  ever  a  cursed  fraction,  oftenest  a  decimal  repeater,  and  no 
net  integer  quotient  so  much  as  to  be  thought  of." 

In  which  passage,  does  there  not  lie  an  implied  confession  that  Teu- 
felsdrockh himself,  besides  his  outward  obstructions,  had  an  inward,  still 
greater  to  contend  with  :  namely,  a  certain  temporary,  youthful,  yet  still 
afflictive  derangement  of  head'?  Alas!  on  the  former  side  alone  his 
case  was  hard  enough.  "  It  continues  ever  true,"  says  he,  "  that  Saturn, 
or  Chronos,  or  what  we  call  Time,  devours  all  his  Children :  only  by 
incessant  Running,  by  incessant  Working,  may  you  (for  some  three- 
score and  ten  years)  escape  him ;  and  you,  too,  he  devours  at  last.  Can 
any  Sovereign,  or  Holy  Alliance  of  Sovereigns,  bid  Time  stand  still ; 
even  in  thought,  shake  themselves  free  of  Time  1  Our  whole  terrestrial 
being  is  based  on  Time,  and  built  of  Time;  it  is  wholly  a  Movement, 

/ 


GETTING  UNDER.  WAY. 


a  Time-impulse ;  Time  is  the  author  of  it,  the  material  of  it.  Hence 
also  our  whole  Duty,  which  is  to  Move,  to  Work,— in  the  right  direc- 
tion. Are  not  our  Bodies  and  our  Souls  in  continual  movement,  whe- 
ther we  will  or  not ;  in  a  continual  Waste,  requiring  a  continual  Repair? 
Utmost  satisfaction  of  our  whole  outward  and  inward  Wants  were  but 
satisfaction  for  a  space  of  Time  ;  thus  whatso  we  have  done,  is  done, 
and  for  us  annihilated,  and  ever  must  we  go  and  do  anew.  O  Time- 
Spirit,  how  hast  thou  environed  and  imprisoned  us,  and  sunk  us  so  deep 
in  thy  troublous  dim  Time-Element ;  that,  only  in  lucid  moments,  can 
so  much  as  glimpses  of  our  upper  Azure  Home  be  revealed  to  us !  Me, 
however,  as  a  Son  of  Time,  imhappier  than  some  others,  was  Time 
threatening  to  eat  quite  prematurely  ;  for  strive  as  I  might,  there  was  no 
good  Running,  so  obstructed  was  the  path,  so  gyved  were  the  feet." 
That  is  to  say,  we  presume,  speaking  in  the  dialect  of  this  lower  world, 
that  Teufelsdrockh's  whole  duty  and  necessity  was,  like  other  men's, 
"  to  work, — in  the  right  direction,"  and  that  no  work  was  to  be  had  ; 
whereby  he  became  wretched  enough.  As  was  natural :  with  haggard 
Scarcity  threatening  him  in  the  distance ;  and  so  vehement  a  soul  lan- 
guishing in  restless  inaction,  and  forced  thereby,  like  Sir  Hudibras's 
sword  by  rust, 

To  eat  into  itself,  for  lack 

Of  something  else  to  hew  and  hack  ! 

But  on  the  whole,  that  same  "  excellent  Passivity,"  as  it  has  all  along 
done,  is  here  again  vigorously  flourishing ;  in  which  circumstance,  may 
we  not  trace  the  beginnings  of  much  that  now  characterizes  our  Pro- 
fessor ;  and  perhaps,  in  faint  rudiments,  the  origin  of  the  Clothes-Philo- 
sophy itself  ?  Already  the  attitude  he  has  assumed  towards  the  World 
is  too  defensive ;  not,  as  would  have  been  desirable,  a  bold  attitude  of 
attack.  "  So  far  hitherto,"  he  says,  "  as  I  had  mingled  with  mankind, 
I  was  notable,  if  for  anything,  for  a  certain  stillness  of  manner,  which, 
as  my  friends  often  rebukingly  declared,  did  but  ill  express  the  keen 
ardor  of  my  feelings.  I,  in  truth,  regarded  men  with  an  excess  both  of 
love  and  of  fear.  The  mystery  of  a  Person,  mdeed^is  ever  divine,  to 
him  that  has  a  sense  Tonhe  Godlike.  Often,  "not" withstanding;  was  I 
blamed;  and  by  half-strangers  hated,  for  my  so-called  Hardness  (Harte), 
my  Indifferent  ism  towards  men  ;  and  the  seemingly  ironic  tone  I  had 
adopted,  as  my  favorite  dialect  in  conversation.  Alas,  the  panoply  of 
Sarcasm  was  but  as  a  buckram  case,  wherein  I  have  striven  to  envelope 
myself;  that  so  my  own  poor  Person  might  live  safe  there;  and  in  all 
friendliness,  being  no  longer  exasperated  by  wounds.  Sarcasm  I  now 
see  to  be,  in  general,  the  language  of  the  Devil ;  for  which  reason  T 
have,  long  since,  as  good  as  renounced  it.  But  how  many  individuals 
did  I,  in  those  days,  provoke  into  some  degree  of  hostility  thereby  !  An 
ironic  man,  with  his  sly  stillness,  and  ambuscading  ways,  more  especially 
an  ironic  young  man,  from  whom  it  is  least  expected,  may  be  viewed  as 
a  pest  to  society.  Have  we  not  seen  persons  of  weight  and  name,  com- 
ing forward,  with  gentlest  indifference,  to  tread  such  an  one  out  of  sight, 
as  an  insignificancy  and  worm,  start  ceiling-high  (balkenhoch),  and 
thence  fall  shattered  and  supine,  to  be  borne  home  on  shutters,  not  with- 
out indignation,  when  he  proved  electric  and  a  torpedo !  " 

Alas,  how  can  a  man  with  this  devilishness  of  temper  make  way  for  him- 
self in  Life ;  where  the  first  problem,  as  Teufelsdrockh  too  admits,  is  "  to 
unite  yourself  with  some  one,  and  with  somewhat  (sich  anzuschlics- 
*en)  1 "  Division,  not  union,  is  written  on  most  part  of  his  procedure. 
Let  us  add  to  that,  in  no  great  length  of  time,  the  only  important  connec- 
tion he  had  ever  succeeded  in  forming,  his  connection  with  the  Zahdarm 
Family,  seems  to  have  been  paralysed,  for  all  practical  uses,  by  the 
death  bf  the  "  not  uncholeric"  old  Count.   This  fact  stands  recorded, 


60 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


quite  incidentally,  in  a  certain  Discourse  on  Epitaphs,  huddled  into  the 
present  Bag,  among  so  much  else ;  of  which  Essay  the  learning  and 
curious  penetration  are  more  to  be  approved  of  than  the  spirit.  His 
grand  principle  is,  that  lapidary  inscriptions,  of  what  sort  soever,  should 
be  Historical  rather  than  Lyrical.  "  By  request  of  that  worthy  Noble- 
man's survivors,"  says  he,  "  I  undertook  to  compose  his  Epitaph  ;  and 
not  unmindful  of  my  own  rules,  produced  the  following;  which,  how- 
ever, for  an  alleged  defect  of  Latinity,  a  defect  never  yet  fully  visible  to 
myself,  still  remains  unengraven  ;" — wherein  we  may  predict,  there  is 
more  than  the  Latinity  that  will  surprise  an  English  reader : 

HIC  JACET 

PHILIPPUS  ZAEHDARM,  COGNOMINE  MAGNUS, 

Zaehdarmi  Comes, 
ex  imperii  concilio, 
velleris  aurei,  periscelidis,  necnon  vulturis  nigri  eques. 
qui  dum  sub  luna  agebat, 
aUINaUIES  MILLE  PERDRICES 

PLUMBO  CONFECIT  : 

VARII  CIBI 

CENTUMPONDIA  MILLIES  CENTENA  MILLIA, 
PER  SE,  PERQUE  SERVOS  QUADRUPEDES  BIPEDESVE, 
HAUD  SINE  TUMULTU  DEVOLVENS, 

IN  STERCUS 

PALAM  CONVERTIT. 
NUNC  A  LABORE  REQUIESCENTEM 
OPERA  SEQUUNTUR. 
SI  MONUMENTUM  QU.ERIS 
E1METUM  ADSPICE. 
PR1MUM  IN  ORBE  PEJECIT  [sub  ddto]  ;   POSTB.EMUM  [sub  dato]. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ROMANCE. 

"For  long  years,"  writes  Teufelsdrockh,  "had  the  poor  Hebrew,  in 
this  Egypt  of  an  Auscultatorship,  painfully  toiled,  baking  bricks  without 
stubble,  before  ever  the  question  once  struck  him  with  entire  force :  For 
what  1—BcyvL  Uimmeli  For  Food  and  Warmth !  And  are  Food  and 
Warmth  nowhere  else,  in  the  whole  wide  Universe,  discoverable'? — 
Come  of  it  what  might,  I  resolved  to  try." 

Thus  then  are  we  to  see  him  in  a  new  independent  capacity,  though 
perhaps  far  from  an  improved  one.  Teufelsdrockh  is  now  a  man  with- 
out Profession.  Quitting  the  common  Fleet  of  herring-busses  and  whal  - 
ers,  where  indeed  his  leeward,  laggard  condition  was  painful  enough, 
he  desperately  steers  oft',  on  a  course  of  his  own,  by  sextant  and  compass 

/ 


ROMANCE. 


Gl 


of  his  own.  Unhappy  Teufelsdrockh  !  Though  neither  Fleet,  nor 
Traffic,  nor  Commodores  pleased  thee,  still  was  it  not  a  Fleet,  sailing  in 
prescribed  track,  for  fixed  objects ;  above  all.  in  combination,  wherein, 
by  mutual  guidance,  by  all  manner  of  loans  and  borrowings,  each  could 
manifoldly  aid  the  other  1  How  wilt  thou  sail  in  unknown  seas;  and 
for  thyself  find  that  shorter,  Northwest  Passage  to  thy  fair  Spice-country 
of  a  Nowhere'? — A  solitary  rover,  on  such  a  voyage,  with  such  nautical 
tactics,  will  meet  with  adventures.  Nay,  as  we  forthwith  discover,  a 
certain  Calypso- Island  detains  him  at  the  very  outset ;  and  as  it  were 
falsifies  and  oversets  his  whole  reckoning. 

"  If  in  youth,"  writes  he  once,  "the  Universe  is  majestically  unveil- 
ing, and  everywhere  Heaven  revealing  itself  on  Earth,  nowhere  to  the 
Young  Man  does  this  Heaven  on  Earth  so  immediately  reveal  itself  as 
in  the  Young  Maiden.  Strangely  enough,  in  this  strange  life  of  ours,  it 
has  been  so  appointed.  On  the  whole,  as  I  have  often  said,  a  Person 
{Personlichkeit)  is  ever  holy  to  us ;  a  certain  orthodox  Anthropomor- 
phism connects  my  Me  with  all  Thees  in  bonis  of  Love :  but  it  is  in  this 
approximation  of  the  Like  and  Unlike,  that  such  heavenly  attraction,  as 
between  Negative  and  Positive,  first  burns  out  into  a  flame.  Is  the  piti- 
fullest  mortal  Person,  think  you,  indifferent  to  us  1  Is  it  not  rather  our 
heartfelt  wish  to  be  made  one  with  him;  to  unite  him  to  us,  by  gratitude, 
by  admiration,  even  by  fear ;  or  failing  all  these,  unite  ourselves  to  him'? 
But  how  much  more,  in  this  case  of  the  Like-Unlike  !  Here  is  conced- 
ed us  the  higher  mystic  possibility  of  such  a  union,  the  highest  in  our 
Earth ;  thus,  in  the  conducting  medium  of  Fantasy,  flames  forth  that 
/redevelopment  of  the  universal  Spiritual  Electricity,  which,  as  unfold- 
ed between  man  and  woman,  we  £rst  emphatically  denominate  Love. 

"  In  every  well-conditioned  stripling,  as  I  conjecture,  there  already 
blooms  a  certain  prospective  Paradise,  cheered  by  some  fairest  Eve;  nor 
in  the  stately  vistas,  and  flowerage  and  foliage  of  that  Garden  is  a  Tree 
of  Knowledge,  beautiful  and  awful  in  the  midst  thereof,  wanting.  Per- 
haps too  the  whole  is  but  the  lovelier  if  Cherubim  and  a  Flaming  Sword 
divide  it  from  all  footsteps  of  men ;  and  grant  him,  the  imaginative  strip- 
ling, only  the  view,  not  the  entrance.  Happy  season  of  virtuous  youth, 
when  shame  is  still  an  impassable  celestial  barrier ;  and  the  sacred  air- 
cities  of  Hope  have  not  shrunk  into  the  mean  clay-hamlets  of  Reality : 
and  man,  by  his  nature,  is  yet  infinite  and  free  ! 

"  As  for  our  young  Forlorn,"  continues  Teufelsdrockh,  evidently 
meaning  himself,  "  in  his  secluded  way  of  life,  and  with  his  glowing 
Fantasy,  the  more  fiery  that  it  burnt  under  cover,  as  in  a  reverberating 
furnace,  his  feeling  towards  the  Glueens  of  this  Earth  was,  and  indeed 
is,  altogether  unspeakable.  A  visible  Divinity  dwelt  in  them ;  to  our 
young  Friend  all  women  were  holy,  were  heavenly.  As  yet  he  but  saw 
them  flitting  past,  in  their  many-colored  angel  plumage ;  or  hovering 
mute  and  inaccessible  on  the  outskirts  of  JEsthetic  Tea:  all  of  air  they 
were,  all  Soul  and  Form ;  so  lovely,  like  mysterious  priestesses,  in  whose 
hand  was  the  invisible  Jacob's-ladder,  whereby  man  might  mount  into 
very  Heaven.  That  he,  our  poor  Friend,  should  ever  win  for  himself 
one  of  these  Gracefuls  (Holden) — Ach  Goit!  how  could  he  hope  it;  should 
he  not  have  died  under  it  1    There  was  a  delirious  vertigo  in  the  thought. 

"  Thus  was  the  young  man,  if  all  sceptical  of  Demons  and  Angels 
such  as  the  vulgar  had  once  believed  in,  nevertheless  not  unvisited  by 
hosts  of  true  Sky-born,  who  visibly  and  audibly  hovered  round  him 
whereso  he  went;  and  they  had  that  religious  worship  in  his  thought, 
though  as  yet  it  was  by  their  mere,  earthly  and  trivial  name  that  he  nam- 
ed them.  But  now,  if  on  a  soul  so  circumstanced,  some  actual  Air- 
maiden,  incorporated  into  tangibility  and  reality,  should  cast  any  elec- 
tric glance  of  kind  eyes,  saying  thereby,  1  Thou  too  mayest  love  and  be 


62  SARTOR  RESARTUS. 

loved  ;'  and  so  kindle  him —good  Heaven,  what  a  volcanic  earthquake- 
bringing,  all-consuming  fire  were  probably  kindled  !' 

Such  a  fire,  it  afterwards  appears,  did  actually  burst  forth,  with  ex- 
plosions more  or  less  Vesuvian,  in  the  inner  man  of  Herr  Diogenes;  as 
indeed  how  could  it  fail  ]  A  nature,  which,  in  his  own  figurative  style, 
we  might  say,  had  now  not  a  little  carbonised  tinder  of  Irritability ;  with 
so  much  nitre  of  latent  Passion,  and  sulphurous  Humor  enough ;  the 
whole  lying  in  such  hot  neighborhood,  close  by  "  a  reverberating  furnace 
of  Fantasy :"  have  we  not  here  the  components  of  driest  Gunpowder, 
ready,  on  occasion  of  the  smallest  spark,  to  blaze  up  1  Neither,  in  this 
our  Life-element,  are  sparks  anywhere  wanting.  Without  doubt,  some 
Angel,  whereof  so  many  hovered  round,  must  one  day,  leaving  "  the  out- 
skirts of  ^Esthetic  Tea,"  flit  nigher;  and,  by  electic  Promethean  glance, 
kindle  no  despicable  firework.  Happy,  if  it  indeed  proved  a  Firework, 
and  flamed  off  rocket-  vise,  in  successive  beautiful  bursts  of  splendor, 
each  growing  naturally  from  the  other,  through  the  several  stages  of  a 
happy  Youthful  Love ;  till  the  whole  were  safely  burnt  out ;  and  the 
young  soul  relieved,  with  little  damage  !  Happy,  if  it  did  not  rather 
prove  a  Conflagration  and  mad  Explosion ;  painfully  lacerating  the 
heart  itself;  nay  perhaps  bursting  the  heart  in  pieces  (which  were 
Death)  ;  or  at  best,  bursting  the  thin  walls  of  your  "  reverberating  fur- 
nace," so  that  it  rage  thenceforth  all  unchecked  among  the  contiguous 
combustibles  (which  were  Madness):  till  of  the  so  fair  and'  manifold 
internal  world  of  our  Diogenes,  there  remained  Nothing,  or*  only  the 
"  crater  of  an  extinct  volcano  !" 

From  multifarious  Documents  in  this  Bag  Capricornus,  and  in  the 
adjacent  ones  on  both  sides  thereof,  it  becomes  manifest  that  our  Philo- 
sopher, as  stoical  and  cynical  as  he  now  looks,  was  heartily  and  even 
franticly  in  Love :  here  therefore  may  our  old  doubts  whether  his  heart 
were  of  stone  or  of  flesh,  give  way.  He  loved  once ;  not  wisely  but  too 
well.  And  once  only  :  for  as  your  Congieve  needs  a  new  case  or  wrap- 
page for  every  new  rocket,  so  each  human  heart  can  properly  exhibit 
but  one  Love,  if  even  one ;  the  "  First  Love  which  is  infinite"  can  be 
followed  by  no  second  like  unto  it.  In  more  recent  years,  accordingly, 
the  Editor  of  these  Sheets  was  led  to  regard  Teufelsdrockh  as  a  man  not 
only  who  would  never  wed,  but  who  would  never  even  flirt ;  whom  the 
grand-climacteric  itself,  and  SI.  Martin's  Summer  of  incipient  Dotage, 
would  crown  with  no  new  myrtle  garland.  To  the  Professor,  women 
are  henceforth  Pieces  of  Art;  of  Celestial  Art,  indeed;  which  celestial 
pieces  he  glories  to  survey  in  galleries,  but  has  lost  thought  of  purchasing. 

Psychological  readers  are-  not  without  curiosity  to  see  how  Teufels- 
drockh, in  this  for  him  unexampled  predicament,  demeans  himself; 
with  what  specialities  of  successive  configuration,  splendor  and  color, 
his  Firework  blazes  off.  Small,  as  usual,  is  the  satisfaction  that  such 
can  meet  with  here.  From  amid  these  confused  masses  of  Eulogy  and 
Elegy,  with  their  mad  Petrarchan  and  Werterean  ware  lying  madly 
scattered  among  all  sorts  of  quite  extraneous  matter,  not  so  much  as  thp 
fair  one's  name  can  be  deciphered.  For,  without  doubt,  the  title  Bin 
mine,  whereby  she  is  here  designated,  and  which  means  simply  Goddess 
of  Flowers,  must  be  fictitious.  Was  her  real  name  Flora,  then?  But 
what  was  her  surname,  or  had  she  none  ?  Of  what  station  in  Life  was 
she ;  of  what  parentage,  fortune,  aspect  1  Specially,  by  what  Pre-es- 
tablished Harmony  of  occurrences  did  the  Lover  and  the  Loved  meet 
one  another  in  so  wide  a  world;  how  did  they  behave  in  such  meeting*? 
To  all  which  questions,  not  unessential  in  a  Biographic  work,  mere 
Conjecture  must  for  most  part  return  answer.  "  It  was  appointed,"  says 
our  Philosopher,  "that  the  high  celestial  orbit  of  Blumine  should  inter- 
sect the  low  sublunary  one  of  our  Forlorn ;  that  he,  looking  in  her  em- 


ROMANCE. 


63 


pyrean  eyes,  should  fancy  the  upper  Sphere  of  Light  was  come  down 
into  this  nether  sphere  of  Shadows  j  and  finding  himself  mistaken,  make 
noise  enough." 

We  seem  to  gather  that  she  was  young,  hazel-eyed,  beautiful,  and 
some  one's  Cousin ;  highborn,  and  of  high  spirit;  but  unhappily  depend- 
ent and  insolvent;  living,  perhaps,  on  the  not  too  gracious  bounty  of 
monied  relatives.  But  how  came  "the  Wanderer"  into  her  circle 7 
Was  it  by  the  humid  vehicle  of  JEsthetic  Tea,  or  by  the  arid  one  of 
mere  Business  ?  Was  it  on  the  hand  of  Herr  Towgood :  or  of  the 
Gnadige  Frau,  who,  as  an  ornamental  Artist,  might  sometimes  like  to 
promote  flirtation,  especially  for  young  cynical  Nondescripts'?  To  all 
appearance  it  was  chiefly  by  Accident,  and  the  grace  of  Nature. 

"  Thou  fair  Waldschloss,  writes  our  Autobiographer,  what  stranger 
ever  saw  thee,  were  it  even  an  absolved  Auscultator,  officially  bearing 
in  his  pocket  the  last  Rclatio  ex  Actis  he  would  ever  write ;  but  mutf. 
have  paused  to  Wonder !  Noble  Mansion !  There  stoodest  thou,  in 
deep  Mountain  Amphitheatre,  on  umbrageous  lawns,  in  thy  serene  soli- 
tude ;  stately,  massive,  all  of  granite  ;  glittering  in  the  western  sunbeams, 
like  a  palace  of  El  Dorado,  overlaid  with  precious  metal.  Beautiful 
rose  up,  in  wavy  curvature,  the  slope  of  thy  guardian  Hills :  of  the 
greenest  was  their  sward,  embossed  with  its  dark-brown  frets  of  crag,  or 
spotted  by  some  spreading  solitary  Tree  and  its  shadow.  To  the  un- 
conscious Wayfarer  thou  wert  also  as  an  Amrnon's  Temple  in  the 
Libyan  Waste ;  where,  for  joy  and  woe,  the  tablet  of  his  Destiny  lay 
written.  Well  might  he  pause  and  gaze  ;  in  that  glance  of  his  were 
prophecy  and  nameless  forebodings." 

But  now  let  us  conjecture  that  the  so  presentient  Auscultator  has  handed 
in  his  Relatio  ex  Actis ;  been  invited  to  a  glass  of  Rhine- wine;  and  so, 
instead  of  returning  dispirited  and  athirst  to  his  dusty  Town-home,  is 
ushered  into  his  Gardenhouse,  where  sit  the  choicest  party  of  dames  and 
cavaliers ;  if  not  engaged  in  ^Esthetic  Tea,  yet  in  trustful  evening  con- 
versation, and  perhaps  Musical  Coffee,  for  we  hear  of  "harps  and  pure 
voices  making  the  stillness  live."  Scarcely,  it  would  seem,  is  the  Gar- 
denhouse inferior  in  respectability  to  the  noble  Mansion  itself.  "Em- 
bowered amid  rich  foliage,  rose  clusters,  and  the  hues  and  odors  of 
thousand  flowers,  here  sat  that  brave  company ;  in  front,  from  the  wide- 
opened  doors,  fair  outlook  over  blossom  and  bush,  over  grove  and  velvet 
green,  stretching,  undulating  onwards  to  the  remote  Mountain  peaks :  so 
bright,  so  mild,  and  everywhere  the  melody  of  birds  and  happy  crea- 
tures :  it  was  all  as  if  man  had  stolen  a  shelter  from  the  Sun  in  the  bo- 
som-vesture of  Summer  herself.  How  came  it  that  the  Wanderer 
advanced  thither  with  such  forecasting  heart  {ahnungsvolV),  by  the  side 
of  his  gay  host  1  Did  he  feel  that  to  these  soft  influences  his  hard  bo- 
som ought  to  be  shut ;  that  here,  once  more,  Fate  had  it  in  view  to  try 
him  ;  to  mock  him,  and  see  whether  there  were  Humor  in  him  1 

"  Next  moment  he  finds  himself  presented  to  the  party  ;  and  specially 
by  name  to — Blumine  !  Peculiar  among  all  dames  and  damosels, 
glanced  Blumine,  there  in  her  modesty,  like  a  star  in  earthly  lights. 
Noblest  maiden !  whom  he  bent  to,  in  body  and  soul ;  yet  scarcely  dared 
look  at,  the  presence  filling  him  with  painful  yet  sweetest  embarrassment. 

"  Blumine's  was  a  name  well  known  to  him ;  far  and  wide  was  the 
fair  one  heard  of,  for  her  gifts,  her  graces,  her  caprices  :  from  all  which 
vague  colorings  of  Rumor,  from  the  censures  no  less  than  from  the 
praises,  had  our  Friend  painted  for  himself  a  certain  imperious  Queen 
of  Hearts,  and  blooming  warm  Earth-angel,  much  more  enchanting  than 
your  mere  white  Heaven-angels  of  women,  in  whose  placid  veins  cir- 
culates too  little  naptha-fvre.  Herself  also  he  had  seen  in  public  places ; 
that  light  yet  so  stately  form  ;  those  dark  tresses,  shading  a  face  where 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


smiles  and  sunlight  played  over  earnest  deeps :  but  all  this  he  had  seen 
only  as  a  magic  vision,  for  him  inaccessible,  almost  without  reality. 
Her  sphere  was  too  far  from  his;  how  should  she  ever  think  of  him;  O 
Heaven  !  how  should  they  so  much  as  meet  together  1  And  now  that 
Rose-goddess  sits  in  the  same  circle  with  him ;  the  light  of  her  eyes  has 
smiled  on  him,  if  he  speak  she  will  hear  it !  Nay,  who  knows,  since 
the  heavenly  Sun  looks  into  lowest  valleys,  but  Blumine  herself  might 
have  aforetime  noted  the  so  unnotable  ;  perhaps,  from  his  very  gainsay- 
ers,  as  he  had  from  hers,  gathered  wonder,  gathered  favor  for  hirri  1 
Was  the  attraction,  the  agitation  mutual,  then  ;  pole  and  pole  trembling 
towards  contact,  when  once  brought  into  neighborhood  1  Say  rathrr, 
heart  swelling  in  presence  of  the  Queen  of  Hearts ;  like  the  Sea  swell- 
ing when  once  near  its  Moon  !  With  the  Wanderer  it  was  even  so :  as 
in  heavenward  gravitation,  suddenly  as  at  the  touch  of  a  Seraph's  wand, 
his  whole  soul  is  roused  from  its  deepest  recesses ;  and  all  that  was  pain- 
ful, and  that  was  blissful  there,  dim  images,  vague  feelings  of  a  whole 
Past  and  a  whole  Future,  are  heaving  in  unquiet  eddies  within  him. 

"  Often,  in  far  less  agitating  scenes,  had  our  still  Friend  shrunk  forci- 
bly together;  and  shrouded  up  his  tremors  and  llutterings,  of  what  sort 
soever,  in  a  safe  cover  of  Silence,  and  perhaps  of  seeming  Stolidity. 
How  was  it,  then,  that  here,  when  trembling  to  the  core  of  his  heart,  he  did 
not  sink  into  swoons,  but  rose  into  strength,  into  fearlessness  and  clear- 
ness 1  It  was  his  guiding  Genius  (Damon)  that  inspired  him  ;  he  must 
go  forth  and  meet  his  Pestiny.  Show  thyself  now,  whispered  it,  or  be 
for  ever  hid.  Thus  sometimes  it  is  even  when  your  anxiety  becomes 
transcendental,  that  the  soul  first  feels  herself  able  to  transcend  it ;  that  she 
rises  above  it,  in  fiery  victory ;  and,  borne  on  new-found  wings  of  vic- 
tory, moves  so  calmly,  even  because  so  rapidly,  so  irresistibly.  Always 
must  the  Wanderer  remember,  with  a  certain  satisfaction  and  surprise, 
how  in  this  case  he  sat  not  silent,  but  struck  adroitly  into  the  stream  of 
conversation ;  which  thenceforth,  to  speak  with  an  apparent  not  a  real 
vanity,  he  may  say  that  he  continued  to  lead.  Surely,  in  those  hours,  a 
certain  inspiration  was  imparted  him,  such  inspiration  as  is  still  possible 
in  our  late  era.  The  self-seclude-d  unfolds  himself  in  noble  thoughts,  in 
free,  glowing  words ;  his  soul  is  as  one  sea  of  light,  the  peculiar  home 
of  Truth  and  Intellect ;  wherein  also  Fantasy  bodies  forth  form,  after 
form,  radiant  with  all  prismatic  hues." 

It  appears,  in  this  otherwise  so  happy  meeting,  there  talked  one 
"  Philistine ;"  who  even  now,  to  the  general  weariness,  was  dominantly 
pouring  forth  Philistinism  (Philistriositaten) ;  little  witting  what  hero 
was  here  entering  to  demolish  him  !  We  omit  the  series  of  Socratic,  or 
rather  Diogenic  utterances,  not  unhappy  in  their  way,  whereby  the  mon- 
ster, "  persuaded  into  silence,"  seems  soon  after  to  have  withdrawn  for 
the  night.  "  Of  which  dialectic  marauder,"  writes  our  hero,  "  the  dis- 
comfiture was  visibly  felt  as  a  benefit  by  most:  but  what  were  all  ap- 
plauses to  the  glad  smile,  threatening  every  moment  to  become  a  laugh, 
wherewith  Blumine  herself  repaid  the  victor  1  He  ventured  to  address 
her,  she  answered  with  attention  :  nay 'what  if  there  were  a  slight  tremor 
in  that  silver  voice ;  what  if  the  red  glow  of  evening  were  hiding  a 
transient  blush ! 

"  The  conversation  took  a  higher  tone,  one  fine  thought  called  forth 
another :  it  was  one  of  those  rare  seasons,  when  the  soul  expands  with 
full  freedom,  and  man  feels  himself  brought  near  to  man.  Gaily  in 
light,  graceful  abandonment,  the  friendly  talk  played  round  that  circle : 
for  the  burden  was  rolled  from  every  heart ;  the  barriers  of  Ceremony, 
which  are  indeed  the  laws  of  polite  living,  had  melted  as  into  vapor; 
and  the  poor  claims  of  Me  and  Thee,  no  longer  parted  by  rigid  fences, 
now  flowed  softly  into  one  another;  and  Life  lay  all  harmonious,  many- 

/ 


ROMANCE. 


65 


tinted,  like  some  fair  royal  champaign,  the  sovereign  and  owner  of 
which  were  Love  only.  Such  music  springs  from  kind  hearts,  in  a 
kind  environment  of  place  and  time.  And  yet  as  the  light  grew  more 
atrial  on  the  mountain  tops,  and  the  shadows  fell  longer  over  the  val- 
ley, some  faint  tone  of  sadness  may  have  breathed  through  the  heart ; 
and,  in  whispers  more  or  less  audible,  reminded  every  one  that  as  this 
bright  day  was  drawing  towards  its  close,  so  likewise  must  the  Day  of 
man's  Existence  decline  into  dust  and  darkness ;  and  with  all  its  sick 
toilings,  and  joyful  and  mournful  noises,  sink  in  the  still  Eternity. 

"  To  our  Friend  the  hours  seemed  moments;  holy  was  he  and  happy  : 
the  words  from  those  sweetest  lips  came  over  him  like  dew  on  thirsty 
grass ;  all  better  feelings  in  his  soul  seemed  to  whisper :  It  is  good  for 
us  to  be  here.  At  parting,  the  Blumine's  hand  was  in  his :  in  the  balmy 
twilight,  with  the  kind  stars  above  them,  he  spoke  something  of  meeting 
again,  which  was  not  contradicted ;  he  pressed  gently  those  small  soft 
fingers,  and  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  not  hastily,  not  angrily  withdrawn/' 

Poor  Teufelsdrockh !  it  is  clear  to  demonstration  thou  art  smit:  the 
&ueen  of  Hearts  would  see  "a  man  of  genius"  also  sigh  for  her;  and 
there,  by  art  magic,  in  that  preternatural  hour,  has  she  bound  and  spell- 
bound thee.  "  Love  is  not  altogether  a  Delirium,"  says  he  elsewhere ; 
"yet  has  it  many  points  in  common  therewith.  I  call  it  rather  a  dis- 
cerning of  the  Infinite  in  the  Finite,  of  the  Ideal  made  Real ;  which  dis- 
cerning again  may  be  either  true  or  false,  either  seraphic  or  demoniac, 
Inspiration  or  Insanity.  But  in  the  former  case,  too,  as  in  common  mad- 
ness, it  is  Fantasy  that  superadds  itself  to  Sight ;  on  the  so  petty  domain 
of  the  Actual,  plants  its  Archimedes'-lever,  whereby  to  move  at  will  the 
infinite  Spiritual.  Fantasy  I  might  call  the  true  Heaven-gate  and  Hell- 
gate  of  man :  his  sensuous  life  is  but  the  small  temporary  stage  (Zeit- 
buhne),  whereon  thick-streaming  influences  from  both  these  far  yet  near 
regions  meet  visibly,  and  act  tragedy  and  melodrama.  Sense  can  sup- 
port herself  handsomely,  in  most  countries,  for  some  eighteenpence 
a-day ;  but  for  Fantasy  planets  and  solar-systems  wall  not  suffice.  Wit- 
ness your  Pyrrhus  conquering  the  world,  yet  drinking  no  better  red  w7ine 
than  he  had  before."  Alas,  witness  also  your  Diogenes,  flame-clad, 
scaling  the  upper  Heaven,  and  verging  on  Insanity,  for  prize  of  a  "  high- 
souled  Brunette,"  as  if  the  Earth  held  but  one,  and  not  several  of  these  ! 

He  says  that,  in  Town,  they  met  again :  "  day  after  day,  like  his 
heart's  sun,  the  blooming  Blumine  shone  on  him.  Ah !  a  little  wThile 
ago,  and  he  was  yet  all  in  darkness :  him  what  Graceful  (Holde)  would 
ever  love  1  Disbelieving  all  things,  the  poor  youth  had  never  learned 
to  believe  in  himself.  Withdrawn,  in  proud  timidity,  within  his  own 
fastnesses;  solitary  from  men,  yet  baited  by  night-spectres  enough,  he 
saw  himself,  with  a  sad  indignation,  constrained  to  renounce  the  fairest 
hopes  of  existence.  And  now,  O  now !  '  She  looks  on  thee,'  cried 
he  :  ' she  the  fairest,  noblest ;  do  not  her  dark  eyes  tell  thee,  thou  art  not 
despised  1  The  Heaven's-Messenger  !  All  Heaven's  blessings  be  hers !' 
Thus  did  soft  melodies  flow  through  his  heart;  tones  of  an  infinite  gra- 
titude ;  sweetest  intimations  that  he  also  was  a  man,  that  for  him  also 
unutterable  joys  had  been  provided. 

"  In  free  speech,  earnest  or  gay,  amid  lambent  glances,  laughter,  tears, 
and  often  with  the  inarticulate  mystic  speech  of  Music :  such  was  the 
element  they  now  lived  in ;  in  such  a  many-tinted,  radiant  Aurora,  and 
by  this  fairest  of  Orient  Light-bringers  must  our  Friend  be  blandished, 
and  the  new  Apocalypse  of  Nature  unrolled  to  him.  Fairest  Blumine  ! 
And,  even  as  a  Star,  all  Fire  and  humid  Softness,  a  very  Light-ray  in- 
carnate !  Was  there  so  much  as  a  fault,  a  1  caprice,'  he  could  have  dis- 
pensed with  1  Was  she  not  to  him  in  very  deed  a  Morning-Star  ;  did 
not  her  presence  bring  with  it  airs  from  Heaven  1    As  from  Eolean 


66  SARTOR  RESARTUS. 

Harps  in  the  breath  of  dawn,' as  from  the  Memnon's  Statue  struck  by  the 
rosy  finger  of  Aurora,  unearthly  music  was  around  him,  and  lapped  him 
into  untried  balmy  Rest.  Pale  Doubt  fled  away  to  Ihe  distance ;  Life 
bloomed  up  with  happiness  and  hope.  The  Past,  then,  was  all  a  hag- 
gard dream ;  he  had  been  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  then,  and  could  not 
discern  it !  But  lo  now  !  the  black  walls  of  his  prison  melt  away,  the 
captive  is  alive,  is  free.  If  he  loved  his  Disenchantress?  Acli  Goitl 
His  whole  heart  and  soul  and  life  were  hers,  but  never  had  he  named 
it  Love :  existence  was  all  a  Feeling,  not  yet  shaped  into  a  Thought." 

Nevertheless,  into  a  Thought,  nay  into  an  Action,  it  must  be  shaped ; 
for  neither  Disenchanter  nor  Disenchantress,  mere  "  Children  of  Time," 
can  abide  by  Feeling  alone.  The  Professor  knows  not,  to  this  day, 
"  how  in  her  soft,  fervid  bosom,  the  Lovely  found  determination,  even 
on  hest  of  Necessity,  to  cut  asunder  these  so  blissful  bonds."  He  even 
appears  surprised  at  the  "  Duenna  Cousin,"  whoever  she  may  have  been, 
"  in  whose  meagre,  hunger-bitten  philosophy,  the  religion  of  young 
hearts  was,  from  the  first,  faintly  approved  of."  We,  even  at  such  dis- 
tance, can  explain  it  without  necromancy.  Let  the  Philosopher  answer 
this  one  question :  What  figure,  at  that  period,  was  a  Mrs.  Teufels- 
drockh  likely  to  make  in  polished  society'?  Could  she  have  driven  so 
much  as  a  brass-bound  Gig,  or  even  a  simple  iron-spring  one'?  Thou 
foolish  "  absolved  Auscultator,"  before  whom  lies  no  prospect  of  capital, 
will  any  yet  known  "religion  of  young  hearts"  keep  the  human  Kitchen 
warm'?  Pshaw!  thy  divine  Blumine,  when  she  "resigned  herself  to 
wed  some  richer,"  shows  more  philosophy,  though  but  "  a  woman  of  ge- 
nius," than  thou,  a  pretended  man. 

Our  readers  have  witnessed  the  origin  of  this  Love-mania,  and  with 
what  royal  splendor  it  waxes,  and  rises.  Let  no  one  ask  us  to  unfold  the 
glories  of  its  dominant  state ;  much  lessthe  horrors  of  its almost  instantane- 
ous dissolution.  How  from  such  inorganic  masses,  henceforth  madder 
than  ever,  as  lie  in  these  Bags,  can  even  fragments  of  a  living  delinea- 
tion be  organized'?  Besides,  of  what  profit  were  it?  We  view,  with  a 
lively  pleasure,  the  gay  silk  Montgolfier  start  from  the  ground,  and  shoot 
upwards,  cleaving  the  liquid  deeps,  till  it  dwindle  to  a  luminous  star : 
but  what  is  there  to  look  longer  on,  when  once,  by  natural  elasticity,  or 
accident  of  fire,  it  has  exploded  1  A  hapless  air-navigator,  plunging, 
amid  torn  parachutes,  sand-bags,  and  confused  wreck,  fast  enough,  into 
the  jaws  of  the  Devil !  Suffice  it  to  know  that  Teufelsdrockh  rose  into 
the  highest  regions  of  the  Empyrean,  by  a  natural  parabolic  track,  and 
returned  thence  in  a  quick  perpendicular  one.  For  the  rest,  let  any 
feeling  reader,  who  has  been  unhappy  enough  to  do  the  like,  paint  it 
out  for  himself ;  considering  only  that  if  he,  for  his  perhaps  compara- 
tively insignificant  mistress,  underwent  such  agonies  and  frenzies,  what 
must  Teufelsdrockh's  have  been,  with  a  fire-heart,  and  for  a  nonpareil 
Blumine!    We  glance  merely  at  the  final  scene: 

"  One  morning,  he  found  his  Morning-star  all  dimmed  and  dusky-red ; 
the  fair  creature  was  silent,  absent,  she  seemed  to  have  been  weeping. 
Alas,  no  longer  a  Morning- star,  but  a  troublous  skyey  Portent,  announc- 
ing that  the  Doomsday  had  dawned  !  She  said,  in  a  tremulous  voice, 
they  were  to  meet  no  more."  The  thunderstruck  Air-sailor  is  not 
wanting  to  himself  in  this  dread  hour:  but  what  avails  it  1  We  omit 
the  passionate  expostulations,  entreaties,  indignations,  since  all  was  vain, 
and  not  even  an  explanation  was  conceded  him;  and  hasten  to  the  catas- 
trophe. " Farewell,  then,  Madam!  said  he,  not  without  sternness,  for 
his  stung  pride  helped  him.  She  put  her  hand  in  his,  she  looked  in  his 
face,  tears  started  to  her  eyes :  in  wild  audacity  he  clasped  her  to  his 
bosom  ;  their  lips  were  joined,  their  two  souls,  like  two  dew-drops,  rushed 
into  one, — for  the  first  time,  and  tor  the  last !"    Thus  was  Teufels- 


SORROWS  OF  TETJFELSDEOCKII. 


07 


drockh  made  immmortal  by  a  kiss.  And  then?  Why,  then — "thick 
curtains  of  Night  rushed  over  his  soul,  as  rose  the  immeasurable  Crash 
of  Doom;  and  through  the  ruins  of  a  shivered  Universe,  was  he  falling, 
falling,  towards  the  Abyss." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SORROWS  OF  TEUFELSDROCKH. 

We  have  long  felt  that,  with  a  man  like  our  Professor,  matters  must 
often  be  expected  to  take  a  course  of  their  own;  that,  in  so  multiplex, 
intricate  a  nature,  there  might  be  channels,  both  for  admitting  and  emit- 
ting such  as  the  Psychologist  had  seldom  noted ;  in  short,  that  on  no 
grand  occasion  and  convulsion,  neither  in  the  joy-storm  nor  in  the  woe- 
storm,  could  you  predict  his  demeanor. 

To  our  less  philosophical  readers,  for  example,  it  is  now  clear  that 
the  so  passionate  Teufelsdrockh,  precipitated  through  "a  shivered  Uni- 
verse" in  this  extraordinary  way,  has  only  one  of  three  things  which  he 
can  next  do  :  Establish  himself  in  Bedlam :  begin  writing  Satanic  Poetry ; 
or  blow  out  his  brains.  In  the  progress  towards  any  of  which  consum- 
mations, do  not  such  readers  anticipate  extravagance  enough:  breast- 
beating,  brow-beating  (against  walls),  lion-bellowings  of  blasphemy  and 
J  he  like,  stampings,  smitings,  breakages  of  furniture,  if  not  arson  itself? 

Nowise  so  does  Teufelsdrockh  deport  him.  He  quietly  lifts  his  Pil- 
gerstab  (Pilgrim-staff),  "  old  business  being  soon  woundup  ;"  and  begins 
a  perambulation  and  circumambulation  of  the  terraqueous  Globe  !  Cu- 
rious it  is,  indeed,  how  with  such  vivacity  of  conception,  such  intensity 
of  feeling ;  above  all,  with  these  unconscionable  habits  of  Exaggeration 
in  speech,  he  combines  that  wonderful  stillness  of  his,  that  stoicism  in 
external  procedure.  Thus  if  his  sudden  bereavement,  in  this  matter  of 
the  Flower-goddess,  is  talked  of  as  a  real  Doomsday  and  Dissolution  of 
Nature,  in  which  light  doubtless  it  partly  appeared  to  himself,  his  own 
nature  is  nowise  dissolved  thereby  ;  but  rather  is  compressed  closer. 
For  once,  as  we  might  say,  a  Blumine  by  magic  appliances  has  unlock- 
ed that  shut  heart  of  his,  and  its  hidden  things  rush  out  tumultuous, 
boundless,  like  genii  enfranchised  from  their  glass  phial :  but  no  sooner 
are  your  magic  appliances  withdrawn,  than  the  strange  casket  of  a 
heart  springs-to  again  ;  and  perhaps  there  is  now  no  key  extant  that  will 
open  it ;  for  a  Teufelsdrockh,  as  we  remarked,  will  not  love  a  second 
time.  Singular  Diogenes !  No  sooner  has  that  heart-rending  occur- 
rence taken  place,  than  he  affects  to  regard  it  as  a  thing  natural,  of 
which  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  said.  "  One  highest  Hope,  seemingly 
legible  in  the  eyes  of  an  Angel,  had  recalled  him  as  out  of  Death-sha- 
dows into  celestial  Life :  but  a  gleam  of  Tophet  passed  over  the  face  of 
his  Angel ;  he  was  rapt  away  in  whirlwinds,  and  heard  the  laughter  of 
Demons.  It  was  a  Calenture,"  adds  he,  "  whereby  the  Youth  saw  green 
Paradise-groves  in  the  waste  Ocean-waters :  a  lying  vision,  yet  not  whol- 
ly a  lie,  for  he  saw  it."  But  what  things  soever  passed  in  him,  when  he 
ceased  to  see  it ;  what  ragings  and  despairings  soever  Teufelsdrockh's 
soul  was  the  scene  of,  he  has  the  goodness  to  conceal  under  a  quite 
opaque  cover  of  Silence.  We  know  it  well ;  the  first  mad  paroxysm 
past,  our  brave  Gneschen  collected  his  dismembered  philosophies,  and 
buttoned  himself  together ;  he  was  meek,  silent,  or  spoke  of  the  weather, 
and  the  Journals :  only  by  a  transient  knitting  of  those  shaggy  brows  by 
some  deep  flash  of  those  eyes,  glancing  one  knew  not  whether  with  tear- 
dew  or  with  fierce  fire, — might  you  have  guessed  what  a  Gehenna  was 
within  :  that  a  whole  Satanic  School  were  spouting,  though  inaudibly, 


G8 


8ART0B  RESARTUS. 


there.  To  consume  your  own  choler,  as  some  chimneys  consume  their 
own  smoke ;  to  keep  a  whole  Satanic  School  spouting,  if  it  must  spout, 
inaudibly,  is  a  negative  yet  no  slight  virtue,  nor  one  of  the  commonest 
in  these  times. 

Nevertheless,  we  will  not  take  upon  us  to  say,  that  in  the  strange  mea- 
sure he  fell  upon,  there  was  not  a  touch  of  latent  Insanity ;  whereof  in- 
deed the  actual  condition  of  these  Documents  in  Capricornus  and  Aqua- 
rius is  no  bad  emblem.  His  so  unlimited  Wanderings,  toilsome  enough, 
are  without  assigned  or  perhaps  assignable  aim;  internal  Unrest  seems 
his  sole  guidance ;  he  wanders,  wanders,  as  if  that  curse  of  the  Prophet 
had  fallen  on  him,  and  he  were  "  made  like  unto  a  wheel."  Doubtless, 
too,  the  chaotic  nature  of  these  Paperbags  aggravates  our  obscurity. 
CAuite  without  note  of  preparation,  for  example,  we  come  upon  the  fol- 
lowing slip :  "  A  peculiar  feeling  is  it  that  will  rise  in  the  Traveller, 
when  turning  some  hill-range  in  his  desert  road,  he  descries  lying  far 
below,  embosomed  among  its  groves  and  green  natural  bulwarks,  and 
all  diminished  to  a  toybox,  the  fair  Town,  where  so  many  souls,  as  it 
were  seen  and  yet  unseen,  are  driving  their  multifarious  traffic.  Its 
white  steeple  is  then  truly  a  starward-pointing  finger ;  the  canopy  of 
blue  smoke  seems  like  a  sort  of  Life-breath :  for  always,  of  its  own  unity, 
the  soul  gives  unity  to  vvhatso  it  looks  on  with  love ;  thus  does  the  little 
Dwellingplace  of  men,  in  itself  a  congeries  of  houses  and  huts,  become 
for  us  an  individual,  almost  a  person.  But  what  thousand  other  thoughts 
unite  thereto,  if  the  place  has  to  ourselves  been  the  arena  of  joyous  or 
mournful  experiences ;  if  perhaps  the  cradle  we  were  rocked  in  still 
stands  there,  if  our  Loving  ones  still  dwell  there,  if  our  buried  ones  there 
slumber!"  Does  Teufelsdrockh,  as  the  wounded  eagle  is  said  to  make 
for  its  own  eyrie,  and  indeed  military  deserters,  and  all  hunted  outcast  crea- 
tures, turn  as  if  by  instinct  in  the  direction  of  their  birthland, — fly  first, 
in  this  extremity,  towards  his  native  Entepfuhl ;  but  reflecting  that  there 
no  help  awaits  him,  take  but  one  wistful  look  from  the  distance,  and 
then  wend  elsewhither  1 

Little  happier  seems  to  be  his  next  flight :  into  the  wilds  of  Nature ; 
as  if  in  her  mother-bosom  he  would  seek  healing.  So  at  least  we  in- 
cline to  interpret  the  following  Notice,  separated  from  the  former  by 
some  considerable  space,  wherein,  however,  is  nothing  note-worthy : 

"  Mountains  were  not  new  to  him;  but  rarely  are  Mountains  seen  in 
such  combined  majesty  and  grace  as  here.  The  rocks  are  of  that  sort 
called  Primitive  by  the  mineralogists,  which  always  arrange  themselves 
in  masses  of  a  rugged,  gigantic  character;  which  ruggedness,  however, 
is  here  tempered  by  a  singular  airiness  of  form,  and  softness  of  environ- 
ment :  in  a  climate  favorable  to  vegetation,  the  gray  cliff,  itself  covered 
with  lichens,  shoots  up  through  a  garment  of  foliage  or  verdure ;  and 
white,  bright  cottages,  tree-shaded,  cluster  round  the  everlasting  granite. 

In  fine  vicissitude,  Beauty  alternates  with  Grandeur :  you  ride  through 
stony  hollows,  along  strait  passes,  traversed  by  torrents,  overhung  by 
high  walls  of  rock;  now  winding  amid  broken  shaggy  chasms,  and  huge 
fragments;  now  suddenly  emerging  into  some  emerald  valley,  where  the 
streamlet  collects  itself  into  a  Lake,  and  man  has  again  found  a  dwelling, 
and  it  seems  as  if  Peace  had  established  herself  in  the  bosom  of  Strength. 

"  To  Peace,  however,  in  this  vortex  of  existence,  can  the  Son  of  Time 
not  pretend  :  still  less  if  some  Spectre  haunt  him  from  the  Past;  and  the 
Future  is  wholly  a  Stygian  Darkness,  spectre-bearing.  Reasonably 
might  the  Wanderer  exclaim  to  himself:  Are  not  the  gates  of  this 
Avorld's  Happiness  inexorably  shut  against  thee ;  hast  thou  a  hope  that 
is  not  mad?  Nevertheless,  one  may  still  murmur  audibly,  or  in  the  ori- 
ginal Greek  if  that  suit  better:  '  Whoso  can  look  on  Death  will  start  at 
no  shadows  V 

I 


SORROWS  OF  TEUFELSDROCKH. 


69 


"  From  such  meditations  is  the  Wanderer's  attention  called  outwards ; 
for  now  the  Valley  closes  in  abruptly,  intersected  by  a  huge  mountain 
mass,  the  stony  waterworn  ascent  of  which  is  not  to  be  accomplished  on 
horseback.  Arrived  aloft,  he  finds  himself  again  lifted  into  the  evening 
sunset  light ;  and  cannot  but  pause,  and  gaze  round  him,  some  moments 
there.  An  upland  irregular  expanse  of  wold,  where  valleys  in  complex 
branchings  are  suddenly  or  slowly  arranging  their  descent  towards  every 
quarter  of  the  sky.  The  mountain-ranges  are  beneath  your  feet,  and 
folded  together:  only  the  loftier  summits  look  down  here  and  there  as 
on  a  second  plain ;  lakes  also  lie  clear  and  earnest  in  their  solitude.  No 
trace  of  man  now  visible ;  unless  indeed  it  were  he  who  fashioned  that 
little  visible  link  of  Highway,  here,  as  would  seem,  scaling  the  inacces- 
sible, to  unite  Province  with  Province.  But  sunwards,  lo  you!  how  it 
towers  sheer  up,  a  world  of  Mountains,  the  diadem  and  centre  of  the 
mountain  region  !  A  hundred  and  a  hundred  savage  peaks,  in  the  last 
light  of  Day ;  all  glowing,  rf  gold  and  amethyst,  like  giant  spirits  of  the 
wilderness;  there  in  their  silence,  in  their  solitude,  even  as  on  the  night 
when  Noah's  Deluge  first  dried  !  Beautiful,  nay  solemn,  was  the  sud- 
den aspect  to  our  Wanderer.  He  gazed  over  those  stupendous  masses 
with  wonder,  almost  with  longing  desire ;  never  till  this  hour  had  ho 
known  Nature,  that  she  was  One,  that  she  was  his  Mother  and  divine. 
And  as  the  ruddy  glow  was  fading  into  clearness  in  the  sky,  and  the 
Sun  had  now  departed,  a  murmur  of  Eternity  and  Immensity,  of  Death 
and  of  Life,  stole  through  his  soul ;  and  he  felt  as  if  Death  and  Life  were 
one,  as  if  the  Earth  were  not  dead,  as  if  the  Spirit  of  the  Earth  had  its  throne 
in  that  splendor,  and  his  own  spirit  were  therewith  holding  communion. 

"  The  spell  was  broken  by  a  sound  of  carriage-wheels.  Emerging 
from  the  hidden  Northward,  to  sink  soon  into  the  hidden  Southward, 
came  a  gay  barouche-and-four :  it  was  open ;  servants  and  postilions  wore 
wedding-favors :  that  happy  pair,  then,  had  found  each  other,  it  was 
their  marriage  evening !  Few  moments  brought  them  near:  Du  Himmel! 

It  was  Herr  Towgood  and  Blumine !    With  slight  unrecognizing 

salutation  they  passed  me  ;  plunged  down  amid  the  neighboring  thick- 
ets, onwards,  to  Heaven,  and  to  England ;  and  I,  in  my  friend  Richter's 
words,  /  remained  alone,  behind  them,  with  the  Night." 

Were  it  not  cruel  in  these  circumstances,  here  might  be  the  place  to 
insert  an  observation,  gleaned  long  ago  from  the  great  Clothes-  Volume, 
where  it  stands  with  quite  other  intent:  "  Some  time  before  Small-pox 
was  extirpated,"  says  the  Professor,  "  there  came  a  new  malady  of  the 
spiritual  sort  on  Europe :  I  mean  the  epidemic,  now  endemical,  of  View- 
hunting.  Poets  of  old  date,  being  privileged  with  Senses,  had  also  en- 
joyed external  Nature ;  but  chiefly  as  we  enjoy  the  crystal  cup  which 
holds  good  or  bad  liquor  for  us ;  that  is  to  say,  in  silence,  or  with  slight 
incidental  commentary:  never,  as  I  compute,  till  after  the  Sorrows  of 
Werter,  was  there  man  found  who  would  say :  Come  let  us  make  a  De- 
scription !  Having  drunk  the  liquor,  come  let  us  eat  the  glass !  Of 
which  endemic  the  Jenner  is  unhappily  still  to  seek."    Too  true  ! 

We  reckon  it  more  important  to  remark  that  the  Professor's  Wander- 
ings, so  far  as  his  stoical  and  cynical  envelopement  admits  us  to  clear 
insight,  here  first  take  their  permanent  character,  fatuous  or  not.  That 
basilisk-glance  of  the  Barouche-and-four  seems  to  have  withered  up 
what  little  remnant  of  a  purpose  may  have  still  lurked  in  him :  Life  has 
become  wholly  a  dark  labyrinth ;  wherein,  through  long  years,  our 
Friend,  flying  from  spectres,  must  stumble  about  at  random,  and  natu- 
rnllv  with  more  haste  than  progress. 

Foolish  were  it  in  us  to  attempt  following  him,  even  from  afar,  in  this 
extraordinary  world-pilgrimage  of  his;  the  simplest  record  of  which, 
were  clear  record  possible,  would  fill  volumes    Hopeless  is  the  obscuri- 


70 


SARTOR  JIESARTTJS. 


ty,  unspeakable  the  confusion.  He  glides  from  country  to  country.,  from 
condition  to  condition;  vanishing  and  reappearing,  no  man  can"  calcu- 
late how  or  where.  Through  all  quarters  of  the  world  he  wanders,  and 
apparently  through  all  circles  of  society.  If  in  any  scene,  perhaps  dim- 
cult  to  fix  geographically,  he  settles  for  a  time,  and  forms  connexions, 
be  sure  he  will  snap  them  abruptly  asunder.  Let  him  sink  out  of  sight 
as  Private  Scholar  {Privatisirendef),  living  by  the  grace  of  God,  in 
some  European  capital,  you  may  next  find  him  as  Hadjee  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Mecca.  It  is  an  inexplicable  Phantasmagoria,  capricious, 
quick-changing;  as  if  our  Traveller,  instead  of  limbs  and  highways, 
had  transported  himself  by  some  wishing-carpet,  or  Fortunatus'  Hat. 
The  whole  too  imparted  emblematically,  in  dim  multifarious  tokens  (as 
that  collection  of  Street- Ad vertisements) ;  with  only  some  touch  of  di- 
rect historical  notice  sparingly  interspersed:  little  light-islets  in  tfce 
world  of  haze!  So  that,  from  this  point,  the  Professor  is  more  of  an 
enigma  than  ever.  In  figurative  language,  we  might  say  he  become s, 
not  indeed  a  spirit,  yet  spiritualised,  vaporised.  Fact  unparalleled  in 
Biography :  The  river  of  his  History,  which  we  have  traced  from  hs 
tiniest  fountains,  and  hoped  to  see  flow  onward,  with  increasing  current, 
into  the  ocean,  here  dashes  itself  over  that  terrific  Lover's  Leap;  and, 
as  a  mad-foaming  cataract,  flies  wholly  into  tumultuous  clouds  of  spray  ! 
Low  down  it  indeeds  collects  again  into  pools  and  plashes ;  yet  only  at 
a  great  distance,  and  with  difficulty,  if  at  all,  into  a  general  stream.  To 
cast  a  glance  into  certain  of  those  pools  and  plashes,  and  trace  whither 
they  nm,  must,  for  a  chapter  or  two,  form  the  limit  of  our  endeavor. 

For  which  end  doubtless  those  direct  historical  Notices,  where  they 
can  be  met  with,  are  the  best.  Nevertheless,  of  this  sort  too  there  occurs 
much,  which,  with  our  present  light,  it  were  questionable  to  emit.  Teuf- 
elsdrdckh,  vibrating  everywhere  between  the  highest  and  the  lowest 
levels,  comes  into  contact  with  public  History  itself.  For  example, 
those  conversations  and  relations  with  illustrious  Persons,  as  Sultan 
Mahmoud,  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  and  others,  are  they  not  as  yet  rather 
of  a  diplomatic  character  than  of  a  biographic  1  The  Editor,  appreciat- 
ing the  sacredness  of  crowned  heads,  nay  perhaps  suspecting  the  possi- 
ble trickeries  of  a  Clothes-Philosopher,  will  eschew  this  province  for  the 
present:  a  new  time  may  bring  new  insight  and  a  different  duty. 

If  we  ask  now,  not  indeed  with  what  ulterior  Purpose,  for  there 
was  none,  yet  with  what  immediate  outlooks;  at  all  events,  in 
what  mood  of  mind,  the  Professor  undertook  and  prosecuted  this 
world-pilgrimage, — the  answer  is  more  distinct  than  favorable.  "  A 
nameless  Unrest,"  says  he,  "urged  me  forward;  to  which  the  outward 
motion  was  some  momentary  lying  solace.  Whither  should  I  gol  My 
Loadstars  were  blotted  out ;  in  that  canopy  of  grim  fire  shone  no  star. 
Yet  forward  must  I;  the  ground  burnt  under  me ;  there  was  no  rest  for 
the  sole  of  my  foot.  I  was  alone,  alone!  Ever  too  the  strong  inward 
longing  shaped  Fantasms  for  itself:  towards  these,  one  after  the  other, 
must  I  fruitlessly  wander.  A  reeling  I  had  that,  for  my  fever-thirst, 
there  was  and  must  be  somewhere  a  healing  Fountain.  To  many  fondly 
imagined  Fountains,  the  Saints'  Wells  of  these  days,  did  I  pilgrim ;  to 
great  Men,  to  great  Cities,  to  great  Events :  but  found  there  no  healing. 
In  strange  countries,  as  in  the  well-known  ;  in  savage  deserts  as  in  the 
press  of  corrupt  civilisation,  it  was  ever  the  same :  how  could  your 
Wanderer  escape  from — his  own  Shadow  ?  Nevertheless  still  Forward  ! 
I  felt  as  if  in  great  haste;  to  do  I  saw  not  what.  From  the  depths  of 
my  own  heart,  it  called  to  me,  Forwards !  The  winds  and  the  streams, 
and  all  Nature  sounded  to  me,  Forwards!  Ach  Gott,  I  was  even,  once 
for  all,  a  Son  of  Time." 

From  which  is  it  not  ckar  that  the  internal  Satanic  School  was  still 


THE  EVERLASTING  NO. 


71 


active  enough  1  He  says  elsewhere  :  ':  The  Enchiridion  of  Epiciet  us  I 
had  ever  with  me,  often  as  my  sole  rational  companion  ;  and  regret  to 
mention  that  the  nourishment  it  yielded  was  trifling."  Thou  foolish 
Teufelsdrockh!  How  could  it  else  %  Hadst  thou  not  Greek  enough  to 
understand  thus  much :  The  end  of  Man  is  an  Action,  and  not  a  Thought. 
though  it  were  the  noblest  1 

"How  I  lived V  writes  he  once:  "Friend,  hast  thou  considered  the 
'  rugged  all-nourishing  Earth,'  as  Sophocles  well  names  her;  how  she 
feeds  the  sparrow  on  the  housetop,  much  more  her  darling  man  1  While 
thou  stirrest  and  livest,  thou  hast  a  probability  of  victual.  My  breakfast 
of  tea  has  been  cooked  by  a  Tartar  woman,  with  water  of  the  Amur, 
who  wiped  her  earthen-kettle  with  a  horsetail.  I  have  roasted  wild  eggs 
in  the  sand  of  Sahara  ;  I  have  awakened  in  Paris  Estrapades  and  Vienna 
Malzleins,  with  no  prospect  of  breakfast  beyond  elemental  liquid.  That 
I  had  my  Living  to  seek  saved  me  from  Dying, — by  suicide.  In  our 
busy  Europe,  is  there  not  an  everlasting  demand  for  Intellect,  in  the  che- 
mical, mechanical,  political,  religious,  educational,  commercial  depart- 
ments 1  In  Pagan  countries,  cannot  one  write  Fetishes  "?  Living !  Lit- 
tle knowest  thou  what  alchemy  is  in  an  inventive  Soul ;  how,  as  with 
its  little  finger,  it  can  create  provision  enough  for  the  body  (of  a  Philo- 
sopher); and  then,  as  with  both  hands,  create  quite  other  than  provi- 
sion; namely,  spectres  to  torment  itself  withal." 

Poor  Teufelsdrockh !  Flying  with  Hunger  always  parallel  to  him ; 
and  a  whole  Infernal  Chace  in  his  rear ;  so  that  the  countenance  of 
Hunger  is  comparatively  a  friend's  !  Thus  must  he,  in  the  temper  of 
ancient  Cain,  or  of  the  modern  Wandering  Jew,  save  only  that  he  feels 
himself  not  guilty  and  but  suffering  the  pains  of  guilt, — wend  to  and  fro 
with  aimless  speed.  Thus  must  he,  over  the  whole  surface  of  the  Earth 
(by  foot-prints),  write  his  Sorrows  of  Teufelsdrockh ;  even  as  the  great 
Goethe,  in  passionate  words,  must  write  his  Sorrows  of  Werter,  before 
the  spirit  freed  herself,  and  he  could  become  a  Man.  Vain  truly  is  the 
hope  of  your  swiftest  Runner  "  to  escape  from  his  own  Shadow  !"  Ne- 
vertheless, in  these  sick  days,  when  the  Bom  of  Heaven  first  descries 
himself  (about  the  age  of  twenty)  in  a  world  such  as  ours,  richer  than 
usual  in  two  things  :  in  Truths  grown  obsolete,  and  Trades  grown  obso- 
lete,— what  can  the  fool  think  but  that  it  is  all  a  Den  of  Lies,  wherein 
whoso  will  not  speak  Lies  and  act  Lies,  must  stand  Idle,  and  despair"? 
Whereby  it  happens  that,  for  your  nobler  minds,  the  publishing  of  some 
such  Work  of  Art,  in  one  or  the  other  dialect,  becomes  almost  a  neces- 
sity. For  what  is  it  properly  but  an  Altercation  with  the  Devil,  before 
you  begin  honestly  Fighting  him  1  Your  Byron  publishes  his  Sorrow* 
of  Lord  George,  in  verse  and  in  prose,  and  copiously  otherwise :  your 
Bonaparte  represents  his  Sorrows  of  Napoleon  Opera,  in  an  ail-too  stu- 
pendous style ;  with  music  of  cannon  volleys,  and  murder-shrieks  of  a 
world ;  his  stage-lights  are  the  fires  of  Conflagration ;  his  rhyme  and 
recitative  are  the  tramp  of  embattled  Hosts  and  the  sound  of  falling 
Cilies. — Happier  is  he  who,  like  our  Clothes-Philosopher,  can  write  such 
matter,  since  it  must  be  written,  on  the  insensible  Earth,  with  his  shoe- 
soles  only;  and  also  survive  the  writing  thereof ! 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  EVERLASTING  NO. 

Under  the  strange  nebulous  envelopment,  wherein  our  Professor  has 
now  shrouded  himself,  no  doubt  but  his  spiritual  nature  is  nevertheless 
progressive,  and  growing :  for  how  can  the  "Son of  Time,"  in  any  case. 


72 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


stand  still  I  We  behold  him,  through  those  dim  years,  in  a  state  of  cri- 
sis, of  transition :  his  mad  Pilgrimages,  and  general  solution  into  aim- 
less Discontinuity,  what  is  all  this  but  a  mad  Fermentation;  wherefrom, 
the  fiercer  it  is,  the  clearer  product  will  one -day  evolve  itself? 

Such  transitions  are  ever  full  ol'  pain :  thus  the  Eagle,  when  he  moults, 
is  sickly ;  and,  to  attain  his  new  beak,  must  harshly  dash  oft'  the  old  one 
upon  rocks.  What  Stoicism  soever  our  Wanderer,  in  his  individual 
acts  and  motions,  may  affect,  it  is  clear  that  there  is  a  hot  fever  of  anar- 
chy and  misery  raging  within  ;  coruscations  of  which  flash  out :  as,  in- 
deed, how  could  there  be  other?  Have  we  not  seen  him  disappointed, 
bemocked  of  Destiny,  through  long  years  1  All  that  the  young  heart 
might  desire  and  pray  for  has  been  denied ;  nay,  as  in  the  last  worst  in- 
stance, offered  and  then  snatched  away.  Ever  an  "  excellent  Passivity ;" 
but  of  useful,  reasonable  Activity,  essential  to  the  former  as  Food  to 
Hunger,  nothing  granted :  till  at  length,  in  this  wild  Pilgrimage,  he 
must  forcibly  seize  for  himslf  an  Activity,  though  useless,  unreasonable. 
Alas !  his  cup  of  bitterness,  which  had  been  filling  drop  by  drop,  ever 
since  that  first  "  ruddy  morning"  in  the  Hinterschlag  Gymnasium,  was 
at  the  very  lip ;  and  then  with  that  poison-drop,  of  the  Towgood-and- 
B1  umine  business,  it  runs  over,  and  even  hisses  over  in  a  deluge  of  foam. 

He  himself  says  once,  with  more  justness  than  originality:  "Man  is, 
properly  speaking,  based  upon  Hope,  he  has  no  other  possession  but 
Hope;  this  world  of  his  is  emphatically  the  Place  of  Hope."  Whai 
then  was  our  Professor's  possession'?  We  see  him,  for  the  present, 
(  shut  out  from  Hope;  looking  not  into  the  golden  orient,  but  all  around 
j  into  a  dim  copper  firmament,  pregnant  with  earthquake  and  tornado. 
Alas,  shut  out  from  Hope,  in  a  deeper  sense  than  we  yet  dream  ol ! 
For  as  he  wanders  wearisomely  through  this  world,  he  has  now  lost  all 
tidings  of  another  and  higher.  Full  of  religion,  or  at  least  of  religiosity, 
as  our  Friend  has  since  exhibited  himself,  he  hides  not  that,  in  those 
days,  he  was  wholly  irreligious:  !<  Doubt  had  darkened  into  Unbelief," 
says  he ;  shade  after  shade  goes  grimly  over  your  soul,  till  you  have 
the  fixed,  starless,  "  Tartarean  black."  To  such  readers  as  have 
reflected,  what  can  be  called  reflecting,  on  man's  life,  and  happily  dis- 
covered, in  contradiction  to  much  Profit-and-Loss  Philosophy,  specula- 
tive and  practical,  that  Soul  is  not  synonymous  with  stomach;  who 
understand,  therefore,  in  our  Friend's  words,  "  that  for  man's  well-being, 
Faith  is  properly  the  one  thing  needful ;  how,  with  it,  Martyrs,  other- 
wise weak,  can  cheerfully  endure  the  shame  and  the  cross  ;  and,  without 
it,  Worldlings  puke  up  their  sick  existence,  by  suicide,  in  the  midst  of 
luxury:  "  to  such  it  will  be  clear  that,  for  a  pure  moral  nature,  the  loss 
of  his  religious  Belief  was  the  loss  of  everything.  Unhappy  young 
man  !  All  wounds,  the  crush  of  long  continued  Destitution,  the  stab  of 
false  Friendship,  and  of  false  Love,  all  wounds  in  thy  so  genial  heart 
would  have  healed  again,  had  not  its  life- warmth  been  withdrawn. 
Well  might  he  exclaim  in  his  wild  way:  "  Is  there  no  God,  then  ;  but 
at  best  an  absentee  God,  sitting  idle,  ever  since  the  first  Sabbath,  at  the 
outside  of  his  Universe,  and  seeing  it  go  1  Has  the  word  Duty  no 
meaning :  is  what  we  call  Duty  no  divine  Messenger  and  Guide,  but  a 
false  earthly  Fantasm,  made  up  of  Desire  and  Fear,  of  emanations  Irom 
the  Gallows  and  from  Doctor  Graham's  Celestial-Bed  1  Happiness  of 
an  approving  Conscience  !  Did  not  Paul  of  Tarsus,  whom  admiring 
men  have  since  named  Saint,  feel  that  he  was  '  the  chief  of  sinners  ; ' 
and  Nero  of  Rome,  jocund  in  spirit  {Wohlgemuth),  spend  much  of  his 
time  in  fiddling?  Foolish  Word-monger  and  Motive-grinder,  that  in 
thy  Logic-mill  has  an  earthly  mechanism  for  the  Godlike  itself,  and 
wouldst  fain  grind  me  out  Virtue  from  the  husks  of  Pleasure,— |  tell 
thee.  Nay !    To  the  unregenerate  Prometheus  Vinetus  of  a  man,  it  is 


THE  EVERLASTING  NO. 


73 


ever  the  bitterest  aggravation  of  its  wretchedness  that  he  is  conscious  of 
Virtue,  that  he  feels  himself  the  victim  not  of  suffering  only,  but  of  in- 
justice. What  then?  Is  the  heroic  inspiration  we  name  Virtue  but 
some  Passion;  some  bubble  of  the  blood,  bubbling  in  the  direction 
others  profit  by%  I  know  not :  only  this  I  know,  If  what  thou  namest 
Happiness  be  our  true  aim,  then  are  we  all  astray.  With  Stupidity  and 
sound  Digestion  man  may  front  much.  But  what  in  these  dull  unima- 
ginative days,  are  the  terrors  of  Conscience  to  the  diseases  of  the  Liver  ! 
Not  on  Morality,  but  on  Cookery  let  us  build  our  stronghold :  there  brand- 
ishing our  fryingpan,  as  censer,  let  us  offer  sweet  incense  to  the  Devil, 
and  live  at  ease  on  the  fat  things  which  he  has  provided  for  his  Elect !  " 

Thus  must  the  bewildered  Wanderer  stand,  as  so  many  have  done, 
shouting  question  after  question  into  the  Sybil-cave  of  Destiny,  and 
receive  no  Answer  but  an  Echo.  It  is  all  a  grim  Desert,  this  once  fair 
world  of  his  ;  wherein  is  heard  only  the  howling  of  wild  beasts,  or  the 
shrieks  of  despairing,  hate-filled  men;  and  no  Pillar  of  Cloud  by  day, 
and  no  Pillar  of  Fire  by  night,  any  longer  guides  the  Pilgrim.  To  such 
length  has  the  spirit  of  Inquiry  carried  hirn.  "But  what  boots  it  {was 
thuts)  1 "  cries  he  :  "  it  is  but  the  common  lot  in  this  era.  Not  having 
come  to  spiritual  majority  prior  to  the  Siecle  de  Louis  Quinze,  and  not 
being  born  purely  a  Loghead  {Dummkopf),  thou  hadst  no  other  outlook. 
The  whole  world  is,  like  thee,  sold  to  Unbelief;  their  old  Temples  of 
the  Godhead,  which  for  long  have  not  been  rainproof,  crumble  down  ; 
and  men  ask  now  :  Where  is  the  Godhead  ;  our  eyes  never  saw  him  !  " 

Pitiful  enough  were  it,  for  all  these  wild  utterances,  to  call  our  Dio- 
genes wicked.  Unprofitable  servants  as  we  all  are,  perhaps  at  no  era 
of  his  life  was  he  more  decisively  the  Servant  of  Goodness,  the  Servant 
of  God,  than  even  now  when  doubting  God's  existence.  "  One  circum- 
stance I  note,"  says  he  :  "  after  all  the  nameless  woe  that  Inquiry,  which 
for  me,  what  it  is  not  always,  was  genuine  Love  of  Truth,  had  wrought 
me,  I  nevertheless  still  loved  Truth,  and  would  bate  no  jot  of  my  alle- 
giance to  her.  1  Truth ! '  I  cried,  1  though  the  Heavens  crush  me  for 
following  her :  no  Falsehood !  though  a  whole  celestial  Lubberland 
were  the  price  of  Apostacy.'  In  conduct  it  was  the  same.  Had  a 
divine  Messenger  from  the  clouds  or  miraculous  Handwriting  on  the 
wall,  convincingly  proclaimed  to  me  This  shalt  ihou  do,  with  what 
passionate  readiness,  as  I  often  thought,  would  I  have  done  it,  had  it 
been  leaping  into  the  infernal  Fire  !  Thus,  in  spite  of  all  Motive-grind- 
ers, and  Mechanical  Profit-and-Loss  Philosophies,  with  the  sick  ophthal- 
mia and  hallucination  they  had  brought  on,  was  the  Infinite  nature  of 
Duty  still  dimly  present  "to  me :  living  without  God  in  the  world,  of 
God's  light  I  was  not  utterly  bereft ;  if  my  as  yet  sealed  eyes,  with 
their  unspeakable  longing,  could  nowhere  see  him,  nevertheless  in  my 
heart  He  was  present,  and  His  heaven- written  Law  still  stood  legible 
and  sacred  there." 

Meanwhile,  under  all  these  tribulations,  and  temporal  and  spiritual 
destitutions,  what  must  the  Wanderer,  in  his  silent  soul,  have  endured  ' 
"  The  painfullest  feeling,"  writes  he,  "  is  that  of  your  own  Feebleness 
(riikraft);  ever,  as  the  English  Milton  says,  to  be  weak  is  the  true 
misery.  And  yet  of  your  Strength  there  is  and  can  be  no  clear  feeling, 
save  by  what  you  have  prospered  in,  by  what  you  have  done.  Between 
vague  wavering  Capability  and  fixed  indubitable  Performance,  what  a 
difference  !  A  certain  inarticulate  Self-consciousness  dwells  dimly  in 
us  ;  which  only  our  Works  can  render  articulate  and  decisively  discern-; 
ible.  Our  works  are  the  mirror  wherein  the  spirit  first  sees  its  natural 
lineaments.  Hence,  too,  the  folly  of  that  impossible  Precept,  Know  thy- 
selfj  till  it  be  translated  into  this  partially  possible  one,  Know  what  thou 
canst  work  at. 

7 


74 


SARTOR  RESARTUS 


"  But  for  me,  so  strangely  unprosperous  had  I  been,  the  net  result  ol 
my  Workings  amounted  as  yet  simply  to — Nothing.  How  then  could  I 
believe  in  my  Strength,  when  there  was  as  yet  no  mirror  to  see  it  in'? 
Ever  did  this  agitating,  yet  as  I  now  perceive,  quite  frivolous  question, 
remain  to  me  insoluble  :  Hast  thou  a  certain  Faculty,  a  certain  Worth, 
such  even  as  the  most  have  not ;  or  art  thou  the  completest  Dullard  of 
these  modern  times  ?  Alas !  the  fearful  Unbelief  is  unbelief  in  your- 
self ;  and  how  could  I  believe?  Had  not  my  first,  last  faith  in  myself, 
Avhen  even  to  me  the  Heavens  seemed  laid  open,  and  I  dared  to  love, 
been  all  too  cruelly  belied'?  The  speculative  Mystery  of  Life  grew  ever 
more  mysterious  to  me :  neither  in  the  practical  Mystery  had  I  made  the 
slightest  progress  but  been  everywhere  buffeted,  foiled,  and  contempt- 
uously cast  out.  A  feeble  unit  in  the  middle  of  a  threatening  infinitude, 
I  seemed  to  have  nothing  given  me  but  eyes,  whereby  to  discern  my 
own  wretchedness.  Invisible  yet  impenetrable  walls,  as  of  Enchant- 
ment, divided  me  from  all  living  :  was  there  in  the  wide  world  any  true 
bosom  I  could  press  trustfully  to  mine  ?  O  Heaven,  No,  there  was 
none !  I  kept  a  lock  upon  my  lips :  why  should  I  speak  much  with  that 
shifting  variety  of  so-called  Friends,  in  whose  withered,  vain,  and  too 
hungry  souls,  Friendship  was  but  an  incredible  tradition'?  In  such 
cases,  your  resource  is  to  talk  little,  and  that  little  mostly  from  the 
Newspapers..  Now  wThen  I  look  back,  it  was  a  strange  isolation  I  then 
lived  in.  The  men  and  women  around  me,  even  speaking  with  me, 
were  but  Figures ;  I  had,  practically,  forgotten  that  they  were  alive, 
that  they  were  not  merely  automatic.  In  midst  of  their  crowded  streets, 
and  assemblages,  I  walked  solitary ;  and  (except  as  it  was  my  own  heart, 
not  another's,  that  I  kept  devouring)  savage  also,  as  the  tiger  in  his 
jungle.  Some  comfort  it  would  have  been,  could  I,  like  a  Faust,  have 
fancied  myself  tempted  and  tormented  of  the  Devil ;  for  a  Hell,  as  I 
imagine,  without  Life,  though  only  diabolic  Life,  were  more  frightful : 
but  in  our  age  of  Downpulling  and  Disbelief,  the  very  Devil  has  been 
pulled  down,  you  cannot  so  much  as  believe  in  a  Devil.  To  me  the 
Universe  was  all  void  of  Life,  of  Purpose,  of  Volition,  even  of  Hos- 
tility :  it  was  one  huge,  dead,  immeasurable,  Steam-engine,  rolling  on, 
in  its  dead  indifference,  to  grind  me  limb  from  limb.  O  the  vast,  gloomy, 
solitary  Golgotha,  and  Mill  of  Death  !  Why  was  the  Living  banished 
.hither  companionless,  conscious'?  Why  if  there  is  no  Devil;  nay, 
unless  the  Devil  is  your  God'?" 

A  pj«ey  incessantly  to  such  corrosions,  might  not,  moreover,  as  the 
worst  aggravation  to  them,  the  iron  constitution  even  of  a  Teufelsdrockh 
threaten  to  fain  We  conjecture  that  he  has  known  sickness ;  and,  in 
spite  of  his  locomotive  habits,  perhaps  sickness  of  the  chronic  sort.  Hear 
this,  for  example:  "  How  beautiful  to  die  of  broken-heart,  on  Paper! 
Quite  another  thing  in  Practice;  every  window  of  your  Feeling,  even 
of  your  Intellect,  as  it  were,  begrimed  and  mud-bespattered,  so  that  no 
pure  ray  can  enter ;  a  whole  Drugshop  in  your  inwTards;  the  foredone 
soul  drowning  slowly  in  quagmires  of  Disgust !" 

Putting  all  which  external  and  internal  miseries  together,  may  we  noi 
find  in  the  following  sentences,  quite  in  our  Professor's  still  vein,  sig- 
nificance enough :  "  From  Suicide  a  certain  after-shine  (Nachschein)  of 
Christianity  withheld  me:  perhaps  also  a  certain  indolence  of  charac- 
ter ;  for,  was  not  that  a  remedy  I  had  at  any  time  within  reach?  Often, 
however,  was  there  a  question  present  to  me :  Should  some  one  now,  at 
the  turning  of  that  corner,  blow  thpe  suddenly  out  of  Space,  into  the  other 
World,  or  other  no- world,  by  pistol-shot, — how  were  it?  On  which 
ground,  too,  I  have  often,  in  sea-storms  and  sieged  cities  and  other  death- 
scenes,  exhibited  an  imperturbability,  which  passed  for  courage." 

"So  had  it  lasted,"  concludes  the  Wanderer,  "so  had  it  lasted,  as  in 


CENTRE  OF  INDIFFERENCE. 


78 


bitter  protracted  Death-agony,  through  long  years.  The  heart  within 
me,  un visited  by  any  heavenly  dewdrop,  was  smouldering  in  sulphurous, 
slow-consuming  fire.  Almost  since  earliest  memory  I  had  shed  no  tear ; 
or  once  only  when  I,  murmuring  half-audibly,  recited  Faust's  Death- 
song,  that  wild  Selig  der  den  er  ivi  Sicgesglanze  findet  (Happy  whom 
he  finds  in  Battle's  splendor),  and  thought  that  of  this  last  Friend  even  I 
was  not  forsaken,  that  Destiny  itself  could  not  doom  me  not  to  die.  Hav- 
ing no  hope,  neither  had  I  any  definite  fear,  were  it  of  Man  or  of  Devil : 
nay,  I  often  felt  as  if  it  might  be  solacing,  could  the  Arch- Devil  himself, 
though  in  Tartarean  terrors,  but  rise  to  me,  that  I  might  tell  him  a  little 
of  my  mind.  And  yet,  strangely  enough,  I  lived  in  a  continual,  indefi- 
nite, pining  fear;  tremulous,  pusillanimous,  apprehensive  of  I  knew  not 
what :  it  seemed  as  if  all  things  in  the  Heavens  above  and  the  Earth  be- 
neath would  hurt  me  ;  as  if  the  Heavens  and  the  Earth  were  but  bound- 
less Jaws  of  a  devouring  Monster,  wherein  I,  palpitating,  waited  to  be 
devoured. 

"  Full  of  such  humor,  and  perhaps  the  miserablest  man  in  the  whole 
French  Capital  or  Suburbs,  was  I,  one  sultry  Dogday,  after  much  per- 
ambulation, toiling  along  the  dirty  little  Rue  Saint  Thomas  de  l'Enfer, 
among  civic  rubbish  enough,  in  a  close  atmosphere,  and  over  pavements 
hot  as  Nebuchadnezzar's  Furnace  ;  whereby  doubtless  my  spirits  were 
little  cheered;  when,  all  at  once,  there  rose  a  Thought  in  me,  and  I 
asked  myself:  '  What  art  thou  afraid  of?  Wherefore,  like  a  coward, 
dost  thou  for  ever  pip  and  whimper,  and  go  cowering  and  trembling  1 
Despicable  biped !  what  is  the  sum-total  of  the  worst  that  lies  before 
thee  1  Death  1  Well,  Death ;  and  say  the  pangs  of  Tophet  too,  and 
all  that  the  Devil  and  Man  may,  will,  or  can  do  against  thee!  Hast 
thou  not  a  heart ;  canst  thou  not  suffer  whatso  it  be ;  and,  as  a  Child  of 
Freedom,  though  outcast,  trample  Tophet  itself  under  thy  feet,  while  it 
consumes  theel  Let  it  come,  then;  I  will  meet  it  and  defy  it?'  And 
as  I  so  thought,  there  rushed  like  a  stream  of  fire  over  my  whole  soul ; 
and  I  shook  base  Fear  away  from  me  for  ever.  I  was  strong,  of  un- 
known strength;  a  spirit,  almost  a  god.  Ever  from  that  time,  the  tem- 
per of  my  misery  was  changed  :  not  Fear  or  whining  Sorrow  was  it,  but 
Indignation  and  grim  fire-eyed  Defiance." 

"  Thus  had  the  Everlasting  No  (das  Ewige  Nein)  pealed  authorita- 
tively through  all  the  recesses  of  my  Being,  of  my  Me;  and  then  was  it 
that  my  whole  Me  stood  up,  in  native  God-created  majesty,  and  with 
emphasis  recorded  its  Protest.  Such  a  Protest,  the  most  important  trans- 
action in  Life,  may  that  same  Indignation  and  Defiance,  in  a  psycholo- 
gical point  of  view,  be  fitly  called.  The  Everlasting  No  had  said :  '  Be- 
hold, thou  art  fatherless,  outcast,  and  the  Universe  is  mine  (the  Devil's);' 
to  which  my  whole  Me  now  made  answer :  '/am  not  thine,  but  Free, 
and  for  ever  hate  thee  !' 

"  It  is  from  this  hour  that  I  date  my  Spiritual  New-birth,  or  Bapho- 
metic  Fire-baptism ;  perhaps  I  directly  thereupon  began  to  be  a  Man." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CENTRE  OF  INDIFFERENCE. 

Though,  after  this  "  Baphometic  Fire-baptism"  of  his,  our  Wanderer 
signifies  that  his  Unrest  was  but  increased  ;  as,  indeed  "  Indignation  and 
Defiance."  especially  against  things  in  general,  are  not  the  most  peacea- 
ble inmates;  yet  can  the  Psychologist  surmise  that  it  was  no  longer  a 
quite  hopeless  Unrest ;  that  henceforth  it  had  at  least  a  fixed  centte  to 
revolve  round.    For  the  fire-baptised  soul,  long  so  scathed  and  thunder- 


76 


SARTOR   R ESARTUS. 


riven,  here  feels  its  own  Freedom,  which  feeling  is  its  Baphometic  Bap- 
tism: the  citadel  of  its  whole  kingdom  it  has  thus  gained  by  assault,  and 
will  keep  inexpugnable ;  outwards  from  which  the  remaining  dominions, 
not  indeed  without  hard  battling,  will  doubtless  by  degrees  be  conquered 
and  pacificated.  Under  another  figure,  we  might  say,  if  in  that  great 
moment,  in  the  Rue  Saint  Thomas  de  VEnfer,  the  old  inward  Satanic 
School  was  not  yet  thrown  out  of  doors,  it  received  peremptory  judicial 
notice  to  quit; — whereby,  for  the  rest,  its  howl-chantings,  Ernulphus- 
cursings,  and  rebellious  gnashings  of  teeth,  might,  in  the  mean  while, 
become  only  the  more  tumultuous,  and  difficult  to  keep  secret. 

Accordingly,  if  we  scrutinize  these  Pilgrimings  well,  there  is  perhaps 
discernible  henceforth  a  certain  incipient  method  in  their  madness.  Not 
wholly  as  a  Spectre  does  Teufelsdrockh  now  storm  through  the  world; 
at  worst  as  a  spectre-fighting  Man,  nay  that  will  one  day  be  a  Spectre- 
queller.  If  pilgriming  restlessly  to  so  many  "  Saints'  Wells,"  and  ever 
without  quenching  of  his  thirst,  he  nevertheless  finds  little  secular  wells, 
whereby  from  time  to  time  some  alleviation  is  ministered.  In  a  word, 
he  is  now,  if  not  ceasing,  yet  intermitting  to  "  eat  his  own  heart ;"  and 
clutches  round  him  outwardly,  on  the  Not-me,  for  wholesomer  food. 
Does  not  the  following  glimpse  exhibit  him  in  a  much  more  natural  state  ? 

"  Towns  also  and  Cities,  especially  the  ancient,  I  failed  not  to  look 
upon  with  interest.  How  beautiful  to  see  thereby,  as  through  a  long 
vista,  into  the  remote  Time ;  to  have,  as  it  were,  an  actual  section  of 
almost  the  earliest  Past  brought  safe  into  the  Present,  and  set  before  your 
eyes !  There,  in  that  old  City,  was  a  live  ember  of  Culinary  Fire  put 
down,  say  only  two  thousand  years  ago ;  and  there,  burning  more  or  less 
triumphantly,  with  such  fuel  as  the  region  yielded,  it  has  burnt,  and  still 
burns,  and  thou  thyself  seest  the  very  smoke  thereof.  Ah  !  and  the  far 
more  mysterious  live  ember  of  Vital  Fire  was  then  also  put  down  there ; 
and  still  miraculously  burns  and  spreads ;  and  the  smoke  and  ashes 
thereof  (in  these  Judgment-Halls  and  Churchyards),  and  its  bellows- 
engines  (in  these  Churches),  thou  still  seest;  and  its  flame,  looking  out 
from  every  kind  countenance,  and  every  hateful  one,  still  warms  thee  or 
scorches  thee. 

"  Of  Man's  Activity  and  Attainment  the  chief  results  are  aeriform, 
mystic,  and  preserved  in  Tradition  only :  such  are  his  Forms  of  Gov- 
ernment, with  the  Authority  they  rest  on ;  his  Customs,  or  Fashions  both 
of  Cloth-habits  and  of  Soul -habits;  much  more  his  collective  stock  of 
Handicrafts,  the  whole  Faculty  he  has  required  of  manipulating  Na- 
ture :  all  these  things,  as  indispensable  and  priceless  as  they  are,  cannot 
in  any  way  be  fixed  under  lock  and  key,  but  must  flit,  spirit-like,  on  im- 
palpable vehicles,  from  Father  to  Son ;  if  you  demand  sight  of  them, 
they  are  nowhere  to  be  met  with.  Visible  Ploughmen  and  Hammer- 
men there  have  been,  ever  from  Cain  and  Tubal cain  downwards  :  but 
where  does  your  accumulated  Agricultural,  Metallurgic,  and  other  Ma- 
nufacturing Skill  lie  warehoused'?  It  transmits  itself  on  the  atmospheric 
air,  on  the  sun's  rays,  by  Hearing  and  by  Vision ;  it  is  a  thing  aeriform, 
impalpable,  of  quite  a  spiritual  sort.  In  like  manner,  ask  me  not, 
Where  are  the  Laws;  where  is  the  Government'?  In  vain  wilt  thou 
go  to  Schonbrunn,  to  Downing  Street,  to  the  Palais  Bourbon  :  thou  find- 
est  nothing  there,  but  brick  or  stone  houses,  and  some  bundles  of  Papers 
tied  with  tape.  Where  then  is  that  same  cunningly-devised  almighty 
Government  of  theirs  to  be  laid  hands  on?  Everywhere,  yet  nowhere  : 
seen  only  in  its  works,  this  too  is  a  thing  aeriform,  invisible  ;  or  if  you 
will,  mystic  and  miraculous.  So  spiritual  (geistig)  is  our  whole  daily 
Life:  all  that  we  do  springs  out  of  Mystery,  Spirit,  invisible  Force; 
only  like  a  little  Cloud-image,  or  Armida's  Palace,  air-built,  does  the 
Actual  body  itself  forth  from  the  great  mystic  Deep. 


CENTRE  OF  INDIFFERENCE. 


77 


:<  Visible  and  tangible  products  of  the  Past,  again,  I  reckon  up  to  the 
extent  of  three :  Cities,  with  their  Cabinets  and  Arsenals ;  then  tilled 
Fields,  to  either  or  to  both  of  which  divisions  Roads  with  their  Bridges 
may  belong;  and  thirdly  Books.  In  which  third  truly,  the  last- 
invented,  lies  a  worth  far  surpassing  that  of  the  two  others.  Wondrous 
indeed  is  the  virtue  of  a  true  Book.  Not  like  a  dead  City  of  stones, 
yearly  crumbling,  yearly  needing  repair ;  more  like  a  tilled  Field,  but 
then  a  spiritual  Field :  like  a  spiritual  Tree,  let  me  rather  say,  it  stands 
from  year  to  year,  and  from  age  to  age  (we  have  Books  that  already 
number  some  hundred-and-fifty  human  ages) ;  and  yearly  comes  its  ney<- 
produce  of  Leaves  (Commentaries,  Deductions,  Philosophical,  Political 
Systems;  or  were  it  only  Sermons,  Pamphlets,  Journalistic  Essays), 
every  one  of  which  talismanic  and  thaumaturgic,  for  it  can  persuade 
men.  O  thou  who  art  able  to  write  a  Book,  which  once  in  the  two  cen- 
turies or  oftener  there  is  a  man  gifted  to  do,  envy  not  him  whom  they 
name  City-builder,  and  inexpressibly  pity  him  whom  they  name  Con- 
queror or  City-burner  !  Thou  too  art  a  Conqueror  and  Victor  ;  but  of 
the  true  sort,  namely  over  the  Devil :  thou  too  hast  built  what  will  out- 
last all  marble  and  metal,  and  be  a  wonder-bringing  City  of  the  Mind,  a 
Temple  and  Seminary  and  Prophetic  Mount,  whereto  all  kindreds  of  the 
Earth  will  pilgrim. — Fool !  why  journeyest  thou  wearisomely,  in  thy 
antiquarian  fervor,  to  gaze  on  the  stone  Pyramids  of  Geeza,  or  the  clay 
ones  of  Sacchara  1  These  stand  there,  as  I  can  tell  thee,  idle  and  inert, 
looking  over  the  Desert,  foolishly  enough,  for  the  last  three  thousand 
years  :  but  canst  thou  not  open  thy  Hebrew  Bible,  then,  or  even  Luther's 
Version  thereof?" 

No  less  satisfactory  is  his  sudden  appearance  not  in  Battle,  yet  on 
some  Battle-field;  which,  we  soon  gather,  must  be  that  of  Wagram;  so 
that  here,  for  once,  is  a  certain  approximation  to  distinctness  of  date. 
Omitting  much,  let  us  impart  what  follows  : 

"  Horrible  enough  !  A  whole  Marchfeld  strewed  with  shell-splinters, 
cannon-shot,  ruined  tumbrills,  and  dead  men  and  horses  ;  stragglers  still 
remaining  not  so  much  as  buried.  And  those  red  mould  heaps :  aye, 
there  lie  the  Shells  of  Men,  out  of  which  all  the  Life  and  Virtue  has 
been  blown  ;  and  now  are  they  swept  together,  and  crammed  down  out 
of  sight,  like  blown  Egg-shells  ! — Did  Nature,  when  she  bade  the  Donau 
bring  down  his  mould-cargoes  from  the  Carinthian  and  Carpathian 
Heights,  and"  spread  them  out  here  into  the  softest,  richest  level, — intend 
thee,  O  Marchfeld,  for  a  corn-bearing  Nursery,  whereon  her  children 
might  be  nursed ;  or  for  a  Cockpit,  wherein  they  might  the  more  com- 
modiously  be  throttled  and  tattered  1  Were  thy  three  broad  Highways, 
meeting  here  from  the  ends  of  Europe,  made  for  Ammunition-waggons, 
then  %  Were  thy  Wagrams  and  Stillfrieds  but  so  many  ready-built 
Casemates,  wherein  the  house  of  Hapsburg  might  batter  with  artillery, 
and  with  artillery  be  battered  1  Konig  Ottokar,  amid  yonder  hillocks, 
dies-  under  Rodolf 's  truncheon ;  here  Kaiser  Franz  falls  a-swoon  under 
Napoleon's :  within  which  five  centuries,  to  omit  the  others,  how  has  thy 
breast,  fair  Plain,  been  defaced  and  defiled !  The  greensward  is  torn 
up  and  trampled  down ;  man's  fond  care  of  it,  his  fruit-trees,  hedge- 
rows, and  pleasant-dwellings,  blown  away  with  gunpowder;  and  the 
kind  seedfield  lies  a  desolate,  hideous  Place  of  Sculls. — Nevertheless, 
Nature  is  at  work;  neither  shall  these  Powder-Devilkins  with  their 
utmost  devilry  gainsay  her :  but  all  that  gore  and  carnage  will  be  shroud- 
ed in,  absorbed  into  manure ;  and  next  year  the  Marchfeld  will  be  green, 
nay  greener.  Thrifty  unwearied  Nature,  ever  out  of  green  waste  educ- 
ing some  little  profit  of  thy  own, — how  dost  thou,  from  the  very  carcass 
of  the  Killer,  bring  Life  for  the  Living  ! 

11  What,  speaking  in  quite  unofficial  language,  is  the  net  purport  and 
7* 


7S 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


upshot  of  war  %  To  my  own  knowledge,  for  example,  there  dwell  and 
toil  in  the  British  village  of  Dumdrudge,  usually  some  live  hundred 
souls.  From  these,  by  certain  '  Natural  Enemies '  of  the  French,  there 
are  successively  selected,  during  the  French  war,  say  thirty  able-bodied 
men:  Dumdrudge,  at  her  own  expense,  has  suckled  and  nursed  them; 
she  has,  not  without  difficulty  and  sorrow,  fed  them  up  to  manhood,  and 
even  trained  them  to  crafts,  so  that  one  can  weave,  another  build,  another 
hammer,  and  the  weakest  can  stand  under  thirty  stone  avoirdupois.  Ne- 
vertheless, amid  much  weeping  and  swearing,  they  are  selected;  all 
dressed  in  red ;  and  shipped  away,  at  the  public  charges,  some  two 
thousand  miles,  or  say  only  to  the  south  of  Spain;  and  fed  there  till 
wanted.  And  now  to  that  same  spot  in  the  south  of  Spain,  are  thirty 
similar  French  artisans,  from  a  French  Dumdrudge,  in  like  manner 
wending :  till  at  length,  after  infinite  effort,  the  two  parties  come  into 
actual  juxta-position;  and  Thirty  stands  fronting  Thirty,  each  with  a 
gun  in  his  hand.  Straightway  the  word  1  Fire  ! '  is  given;  and  they 
blow  the  souls  out  of  one  another ;  and  in  place  of  sixty  brisk  useful 
craftsmen,  the  world  has  sixty  dead  carcasses  which  it  must  bury,  and 
anew  shed  tears  for.  Had  these  men  any  quarrel  %  Busy  as  the  Devil 
is,  not  the  smallest !  They  lived  far  enough  apart ;  were  the  entirest 
strangers;  nay,  in  so  wide  a  Universe,  there  was  even,  unconsciously, 
by  Commerce,  some  mutual  helpfulness  between  them.  How  then'? 
Simpleton  !  their  Governors  had  fallen  ou  t ;  and,  instead  of  shooting  one 
another,  had  the  cunning  to  make  these  poor  blockheads  shoot.— Alas,  so 
is  it  in  Deutschland,  and  hitherto  in  all  other  lands ;  still,  as  of  old, 
1  what  devilry  soever  Kings  do,  the  Greeks  must  pay  the  piper !' — In  that 
fiction  of  the"  English  Smollett,  it  is  true,  the  final  Cessation  of  War  is 
perhaps  prophetically  shadowed  forth  ;  where  the  two  Natural  Enemies, 
in  person,  take  each  a  Tobacco-pipe,  filled  with  Brimstone ;  light  the 
same,  and  smoke  in  one  another's  faces,  till  the  weaker  gives  in:  but 
from  such  predicted  Peace-Era,  what  blood-filled  trenches,  and  conten- 
tious centuries,  may  still  divide  us !" 

Thus  can  the  Professor,  at  least  in  lucid  intervals,  look  away  from  his 
own  sorrows,  over  the  many-colored  world,  and  pertinently  enough  note 
what  is  passing  there.  We  may  remark,  indeed,  that  for  the  matter  of 
spiritual  culture,  if  for  nothing  else,  perhaps  few  periods  of  his  life  were 
richer  than  this.  Internally,  there  is  the  most  momentous  instructive 
Course  of  Practical  Philosophy,  with  Experiments,  going  on ;  towards 
the  right  comprehension  of  which  his  Peripatetic  habits,  favorable  to 
Meditation,  might  help  him  rather  than  hinder.  Externally,  again,  as 
he  wanders  to  and  fro,  there  are,  if  for  the  longing  heart  little  substance, 
yet  for  the  seeing  eye  sights  enough :  in  these  so  boundless  Travels  of 
his,  granting  that  the  Satanic  School  was  even  partially  kept  down, 
what  an  incredible  Knowledge  of  our  Planet,  and  its  Inhabitants  and 
their  Works,  that  is  to  say,  of  all  knowable  things,  might  not  Teufels- 
drdckh  acquire  ! 

"  I  have  read  in  most  Public  Libraries,"  says  he,  "  including  those  of 
Constantinople  and  Samarcand :  in  most  Colleges,  except  the  Chinese 
Mandarin  ones,  I  have  studied,  or  seen  that  there  was  no  studying.  Un- 
known Languages  have  I  oftenest  gathered  from  their  natural  repertory, 
the  Air,  by  my  organ  of  Hearing;  Statistics,  Geographies,  Topogra- 
phies came,  through  the  Eye,  almost  of  their  own  accord.  The  ways 
of  Man,  how  he  seeks  food,  and  warmth,  and  protection  for  himself,  in 
most  regions,  are  ocularly  known  to  me.  Like  the  great  Hadrian,  I 
meted  out  much  of  the  terraqueous  Globe  with  a  pair  of  Compasses  that 
belonged  to  myself  only. 

"  Of  great  Scenes,  why  speak  ?  Three  summer  days,  I  lingered  re- 
flecting, and  even  composing  (dichtete),  by  the  Pine-chasms  of  Vau- 


cf.ntre  of  indifference. 


79 


cluse ;  and  in  that  clear  Lakelet  moistened  my  bread.  I  have  sat  under 
the  palm-trees  of  Tadmor ;  smoked  a  pipe  among  the  ruins  of  Babylon. 
The  great  Wall  of  China  I  have  seen;  and  can  testify  that  it  is  of  grey 
brick,  coped  and  covered  with  granite,  and  shows  only  second-rate  ma- 
sonry.— Great  Events,  also,  have  I  not  witnessed'?  Kings  sweated  down 
{ausgemergelt)  into  Berlin-and-Milan  Customhouse-officers ;  the  World 
well  won,  and  the  World  well  lost;  oftener  than  once  a  hundred  thou- 
sand individuals  shot  (by  each  other)  in  one  day.  All  kindreds  and 
peoples  and  nations  dashed  together,  and  shifted  and  shovelled  into 
heaps,  that  they  might  ferment  there,  and  in  time  unite.  The  birth- 
pangs  of  Democracy,  wherewith  convulsed  Europe  was  groaning  in  cries 
that  reached  Heaven,  could  not  escape  me. 

"  For  great  Men  I  have  ever  had  the  warmest  predilection  ;  and  can 
perhaps  boast  that  few  such  in  this  era  have  wholly  escaped  me.  Great 
Men  are  the  inspired  (speaking  and  acting)  Texts  of  that  divine  Book 
of  Revelations,  whereof  a  Chapter  is  completed  from  epoch  to  epoch, 
and  by  some  named  History  ;  to  which  inspired  Texts  your  numerous 
talented  men,  and  your  innumerable  untalented  men,  are  the  beXter  or 
worse  exegetic  Commentaries,  and  waggon-load  of  too-stupid,  heretical 
or  orthodox,  weekly  Sermons.  For  my  study,  the  inspired  Texts  them- 
selves !  Thus  did  I  not,  in  very  early  days,  having  disguised  me  as 
tavern-waiter,  stand  behind  the  field-chairs,  under  that  shady  Tree  at 
Treisnitz  by  the  Jena  Highway ;  waiting  upon  the  great  Schiller  and 
greater  Goethe ;  and  hearing  what  I  have  not  forgotten.    For  " 

 But  at  this  point  the  Editor  recalls  his  principle  of  caution,  some 

time  ago  laid  down,  and  must  suppress  much.  Let  not  the  sacredness 
of  Laurelled,  still  more,  of  Crowned  Heads,  be  tampered  with.  Should 
we,  at  a  future  day,  find  circumstances  altered,  and  the  time  come  for 
Publication,  then  may  these  glimpses  into  the  privacy  of  the  Illustrious 
be  conceded ;  which  for  the  present  were  little,  better  than  treacherous, 
perhaps  traitorous  Eavesdroppings.  Of  Lord  Byron,  therefore,  of  Pope 
Pius,  Emperor  Tarakwang,  and  the  "  White  Water-roses"  (Chinese 
Carbonari)  with  their  mysteries,  no  notice  here  !  Of  Napoleon  himself 
we  shall  only,  glancing  from  afar,  remark  that  Teufelsdrockh's  relation 
to  him  seems  to  have  been  of  a  very  varied  character.  At  first  we  find 
our  poor  Professor  on  the  point  of  being  shot  as  a  spy ;  then  taken  into 
private  conversation,  even  pinched  on  the  ear,  yet  presented  with  no 
money  :  at  last  indignantly  dismissed,  almost  thrown  out  of  doors,  as  an 
"  Ideologist."  "  He  himself,"  says  the  Professor,  "  was  among  the  com- 
pletest  Ideologists,  at  least  Ideopraxists  :  in  the  Idea  {in  der  Idee)  he  liv- 
ed, moved,  and  fought.  The  man  was  a  Divine  Missionary,  though 
unconscious  of  it;  and  preached,  through  the  cannon's  throat,  that  great 
doctrine,  La  carriere  ouverte  aux  talens  (The  Tools  to  him  that  can  han- 
dle them),  which  is  our  ultimate  Political  Evangel,  wherein  alone  can 
Liberty  lie.  Madly  enough  he  preached,  it  is  true,  as  Enthusiasts  and 
first  Missionaries  are  wont,  with  imperfect  utterance,  amid  much  frothy 
rant;  yet  as  articulately  perhaps  as  the  case  admitted.  Or  call  him,  if 
you  will,  an  American  Backwoods-man,  who  had  to  fell  unpenetrated 
forests,  and  battle  with  innumerable  wolves,  and  did  not  entirely  forbear 
strong  liquor,  rioting,  and  even  theft ;  whom,  notwithstanding,  the 
peaceful  Sower  will  follow,  and,  as  he  cuts  the  boundless  harvest,  bless." 

More  legitimate  and  decisively  authentic  is  Teufelsdrockh's  appear- 
ance and  emergence  (we  know  not  well  whence)  in  the  solitude  of  the 
North  Cape,  on  that  June  Midnight.  He  has  a  "light-blue  Spanish 
cloak"  hanging  round  him,  as  his  "  most  commodious,  principal,  indeed 
sole  upper-garment ;"  and  stands  there,  on  the  World-promontory,  look- 
ing over  the  infinite  Brine,  like  a  little  blue  Belfry  (as  we  figure),  now- 
motionless  indeed,  yet  ready,  if  stirred,  to  ring  quaintest  changes. 


80 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


"  Silence  as  of  Death/'  writes  he ;  "  for  Midnight,  even  in  the  Arctic 
latitudes,  has  its  character :  nothing  but  the  granite  cliffs  ruddy-tinged, 
the  peaceable  gurgle  of  that  slow-heaving  Polar  Ocean,  over  which  in 
the  utmost  North  the  great  Sun  hangs  low  and  lazy,  as  if  he  too  were 
slumbering.  Yet  is  his  cloud-couch  wrought  of  crimson  and  cloth  of 
gold  ;  yet  does  his  light  stream  over  the  mirror  of  waters,  like  a  tremu- 
lous fire-pillar,  shooting  downwards  to  the  abyss,  and  hide  itself  under 
my  feet.  In  such  moments,  Solitude  also  is  invaluable  ;  for  who  would 
speak,  or  be  looked  on,  when  behind  him  lies  all  Europe  and  Africa, 
fast  asleep,  except  the  watchmen  ;  and  before  him  the  silent  Immensity, 
and  Palace  of  the  Eternal,  whereof  our  Sun  is  but  a  porch-lamp. 

"Nevertheless,  in  this  solemn  moment,  comes  a  man,  or  monster, 
scrambling  from  among  the  rock-hollows  ;  and,  shaggy,  huge  as  the  Hy- 
perborean Bear,  hails  me  in  Russian  speech  :  most  probably,  therefore,  a 
Russian  Smuggler.  With  courteous  Brevity,  I  signify  my  indifference 
to  contraband  trade,  my  humane  intentions,  yet  strong  wish  to  be  pri- 
vate. In  vain  :  the  monster,  counting  doubtless  on  his  superior  stature, 
and  minded  to  make  sport  for  himself,  or  perhaps  profit,  were  it  with 
murder,  continues  to  advance  ;  ever  assailing  me  with  his  importunate 
train-oil  breath ;  and  now  has  advanced,  till  we  stand  both  on  the  verge 
of  the  rock,  the  deep  sea  rippling  greedily  down  below.  What  argu- 
ment will  avail  %  On  the  thick  Hyperborean,  cherubic  reasoning,  sera- 
phic eloquence  were  lost.  Prepared  for  such  extremity,  I,  deftly  enough, 
whisk  aside  one  step  ;  draw  out,  from  my  interior  reservoirs,  a  sufficient 
Birmingham  Horse-pistol,  and  say  '  Be  so  obliging  as  retire, Friend  (Er 
ziehe  sick  zuruck,  Freund),  and  with  promptitude  !'  This  logic  even  the 
Hyperborean  understands:  fast  enough,  with  apologetic,  petitionary 
growl,  he  sidles  off ;  and,  except  for  suicidal  as  well  as  homicidal  pur- 
poses, need  not  return. 

"  Such  I  hold  to  be  the  genuine  use  of  GunpoAvder :  that  it  makes  all 
men  alike  tall.  Nay,  if  thou  be  cooler,  cleverer  than  I,  if  thou  have 
more  Mind,  though  all  but  no  Body  whatever,  then  canst  thou  kill  me 
first,  and  art  the  taller.  Hereby,  at  last,  is  the  Goliath  powerless,  and 
the  David  resistless ;  savage  Animalism  is  nothing,  inventive  Spiritual- 
ism is  all. 

"  With  respect  to  Duels,  indeed,  I  have  my  own  ideas.  Few  things,  in 
this  so  surprising  world,  strike  me  with  more  surprise.  Two  little 
visual  Spectra  of  men,  hovering  with  insecure  enough  cohesion  in  the 
midst  of  the  Unfathomable,  and  to  dissolve  therein,  at  any  rate,  very 
soon, — make  pause  at  the  distance  of  twelve  paces  asunder;  whirl 
round ;  and,  simultaneously  by  the  cunningest  mechanism,  explode  one 
another  into  Dissolution ;  and  off-hand  become  Air,  and  Non-extant ! 
Deuce  on  it  (verdammt),  the  little  spitfires ! — Nay,  I  think  with  old  Husjc 
von  Trimberg :  1  God  must  needs  laugh  outright,  could  such  a  thing  TOf 
to  see  his  wondrous  Mannikins  here  below.'  " 

But  amid  these  specialities,  let  us  not  forget  the  great  generality, 
which  is  our  chief  quest  here  :  How  prospered  the  inner  man  of  Teu- 
felsdrdckh  under  so  much  outward  shifting  %  Does  Legion  still  lurk  in 
him,  though  repressed ;  or  has  he  exorcised  that  Devil's  Brood'?  We 
can  answer  that  the  symptoms  continue  promising.  Experience  is  the 
grand  spiritual  Doctor  ;  and  with  him  Teufelsdrockh  has  now  been  long 
a  patient,  swallowing  many  a  bitter  bolus.  Unless  our  poor  Friend  be- 
long to  the  numerous  class  of  Incurables,  which  seems  not  likely,  some 
cure  will  doubtless  be  effected.  We  should  rather  say  that  Legion,  or 
the  Satanic  School,  was  now  pretty  well  extirpated  and  cast  out,  but 
next  to  nothing  introduced  in  its  room ;  whereby  the  heart  remains,  for 
the  while,  in  a  quiet  but  no  comfortable  state. 

"  At  length,  after  so  much  roasting,"  thus  writes  our  Autobiographer, 


THE    EVERLASTING  YEA. 


81 


"  1  was  what  you  might  name  calcined.  Pray  only  that  il  be  not  rather, 
as  is  the  more  frequent  issue,  reduced  to  a  caput-vwrtuurn!  But  in  any 
case,  by  mere  dint  of  practice,  i  had  grown  familiar  with  many  things. 
Wretchedness  was  still  wretched  ;  but  I  could  now  partly  see  through  it, 
and  despise  it.  Which  highest  mortal,  in  this  inane  Exisience,  had  I 
not  found  a  Shadow-hunter,  or  Shadow-hunted;  and,  when  I  looked 
through  his  brave  garnitures,  miserable  enough  1  Thy  wishes  have  all 
been  sniffed  aside,  thought  I :  but  what,  had  they  even  been  all  granted  ! 
Did  not  the  Boy  Alexander  weep  because  he  had  not  two  Planets  to 
conquer ;  or  a  whole  Solar  System ;  or  after  that,  a  whole  Universe  ? 
Ach  Gott,  when  I  gazed  into  these  Stars,  have  they  not  looked  down  on 
me  as  if  with  pity  from  their  serene  spaces;  like  Eyes  glistening  witli 
heavenly  tears  over  the  little  lot  of  man !  Thousands  of  human  gene- 
rations, all  as  noisy  as  our  own,  have  been  swallowed  up  of  Time,  and 
i here  remains  no  wreck  of  them  any  more;  and  Arcturus  and  Orion 
and  Sirius  and  Pleiades  are  still  shining  in  their  courses,  clear  and 
young,  as  when  the  Shepherd  first  noted  them  in  the  plain  of  Shinar. 
Pshaw  !  what  is  this  paltry  little  Dog-cage  of  an  Earth  ;  what  art  thou 
i  hat  sittest  whining  there  1  Thou  art  still  Nothing,  Nobody  :  true ;  but 
who  then  is  Something,  Somebody  1  For  thee  the  Family  of  Man  has. 
no  use  ;  it  rejects  thee ;  thou  art  wholly  as  a  dissevered  limb :  so  be  it ; 
perhaps  it  is  better  so !" 

Too  heavy-laden  Teufelsdrockh  !  Yet  surely  his  bands  are  loosen- 
ing :  one  day  he  will  hurl  the  burden  far  from  him,  and  bound  forth  free, 
and  with  a  second  youth. 

"  This,"  says  our  Professor,  "  was  the  Centre  op  Indifference  I  had 
now  reached ;  through  which  whoso  travels  from  the  Negative  Pole  to 
the  Positive  must  necessarily  pass." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  EVERLASTING  YEA. 

"  Temptations  in  the  Wilderness!"  exclaims  Teufelsdrockh  :  "  Have 
we  not  all  to  be  tried  with  such  1  Not  so  easily  can  the  old  Adam, 
lodged  in  us  by  birth,  be  dispossessed.  Our  Life  is  compassed  round 
with  Necessity  ;  yet  is  the  meaning  of  Life  itself  no  other  than  Freedom, 
than  Voluntary  Force :  thus  have  we  a  warfare  ;  in  the  beginning,  es- 
pecially, a  hard-fought  battle.  For  the  God-given  mandate,  Work  thoto 
in  Welldoing,  lies  mysteriously  written,  in  Promethean,  Prophetic  Cha- 
racters, in  our  hearts ;  and  leaves  us  no  rest,  night  or  day,  till  it  be  de- 
ciphered and  obeyed;  till  it  burn  forth,  in  our  conduct,  a  visible,  acted 
Gospel  of  Freedom.  And  as  the  clay-given  mandate,  Eat  thou  and  be 
filled,  at  the  same  time,  persuasively  proclaims  itself  through  every 
nerve —must  there  not  be  a  confusion,  a  contest,  before  the  better  In- 
fluence can  become  the  upper  1 

"  To  me  nothing  seems  more  natural  than  that  the  Son  of  Man,  when 
such  God-given  mandate  first  prophetically  stirs  within  him,  and  the 
Clay  must  now  be  vanquished  or  vanquish, —  should  be  carried  of  the 
spirit  into  grim  Solitudes,  and  there  fronting  the  Tempter  do  grimmest 
battle  with  him ;  defiantly  setting  him  at  naught,  till  he  yield  and  fly. 
Name  it  as  we  choose ;  with  or  without  visible  Devil,  whether  in  the  na- 
tural Desert  of  rocks  and  sands,  or  in  the  populous  moral  Desert  of  self- 
ishness and  baseness, — to  such  Temptation  are  we  all  called.  Unhappy 
if  we  are  not !  Unhappy  if  we  are  but  Half-men,  in  whom  that  divine 
hand-writing  has  never  blazed  forth,  all-subduing,  in  true  sun-splendor; 
Hit  quivers  dubiously  amid  meaner  lights',  or  smoulders,  in  dull  pain,  in 


82 


SARTOR  RR8ARTUS. 


darkness,  under  earthly  vapors! — Our  Wilderness  is  the  wide  World  in 
an  Atheistic  Century;  our  Forty  Days  are  long  years  of  suffering  and 
lasting :  nevertheless,  to  these  also  comes  an  end.  Yes,  to  me  also  was 
given,  if  not  Victory,  yet  the  consciousness  of  Battle,  and  the  resolve  to 
persevere  therein  while  life  or  faculty  is  left.  To  me  also,  entangled  in 
the  enchanted  forests,  demon-peopled,  doleful  of  sight  and  of  sound,  it 
was  given,  after  weariest  wanderings,  to  work  out  my  way  into  the 
higher  sunlit  slopes — of  that  Mountain  which  has  no  summit,  or  whose 
summit  is  in  Heaven  only  !" 

He  says  elsewhere,  under  a  less  ambitious  figure  ;  as  figures  are,  once 
for  all,  natural  to  him:  "  Has  not  thy  Life  been  that  of  most  sufficient 
men  (tuchtigen  Manner)  thou  hast  known  in  this  generation  1  An  out- 
flush  of  foolish  young  Enthusiasm,  like  the  first  fallow-crop,  wherein 
are  as  many  weeds  as  valuable  herbs  :  this  all  parched  away,  under  the 
Droughts  of  practical  and  spiritual  Unbelief;  as  Disappointment,  in 
thought  and  act,  often-repeated  gave  rise  to  Doubt,  and  Doubt  gradually 
settled  into  Denial !  If  I  have  had  a  second-crop,  and  now  see  the  per- 
ennial greensward,  and  sit  under  umbrageous  cedars,  which  defy  all 
Drought  (and  Doubt) :  herein  too,  be  the  Heavens  praised,  I  am  not  with- 
out examples,  and  even  exemplars." 

So  that  for  Teufelsdrockh  also  there  has  been  a  "  glorious  revolution :" 
these  mad  shadow-hunting  and  shadow-hunted  Pilgrimings  of  his,  were 
but  some  purifying  "  Temptation  in  the  Wilderness,"  before  his  aposto- 
lic work  (such  as  it  was)  could  begin;  which  Temptation  is  now  hap- 
pily over,  and  the  Devil  once  more  worsted  !  Was  "  that  high  moment 
in  the  Rue  de  VEnfer"  then,  properly  the  turning  point  of  the  battle  ; 
when  the  Fiend  said,  Worship  me  or  be  torn  in  shreds,  and  was  answered 
valiantly  with  an  Apage  Satanas  ? — Singular  Teufelsdrockh,  would  thou 
hadst  told  thy  singular  story  in  plain  words !  But  it  is  fruitless  to  look 
there,  in  those  Paper-bags,  for  such.  Nothing  but  inuendoes,  figurative 
crotchets :  a  typical  Shadow,  fitfully  wavering,  prophetico-satiric ;  no 
clear  logical  Picture.  "  How  paint  to  the  sensual  eye,"  asks  he  once, 
"  what  passes  in  the  Holy-of-Holies  of  Man's  Soul ;  in  what  words, 
known  to  these  profane  times,  speak  even  afar  off" of  the  unspeakable?" 
We  ask  in  turn ;  Why  perplex  these  times,  profane  as  they  are,  with 
needless  obscurity,  by  omission  and  by  commission  1  Not  mystical  only 
is  our  Professor,  but  whimsical ;  and  involves  himself,  now  more  than 
ever,  in  eye-bewildering  chiaroscuro.  Successive  glimpses,  here  faith- 
fully imparted,  our  more  gifted  readers  must  endeavor  to  combine  for 
their  own  behoof. 

He  says:  "  The  hot  Harmattan-wind  had  raged  itself  out;  its  howl 
went  silent  within  me  ;  and  the  long-deafened  soul  could  now  hear.  1 
paused  in  my  wild  wanderings  ;  and  sat  me  down  to  wait,  and  consider; 
for  it  was  as  if  the  hour  of  change  drew  nigh.  I  seemed  to  surrender, 
to  renounce  utterly,  and  say :  Fly,  then,  false  shadows  of  Hope  ;  I  will 
chase  you  no  more,  I  will  believe  you  no  more.  And  ye  too,  haggard 
spectres  of  Fear,  I  care  not  for  you ;  ye  too  are  all  shadows  and  a  lie. 
Let  me  rest  here  :  for  I  am  way-weary  and  life-weary ;  I  will  rest  here, 
were  it  but  to  die :  to  die  or  to  live  is  alike  to  me ;  alike  insignificant." 
— And  again :  "  Here,  then,  as  I  lay  in  that  Centre  of  Indifference; 
cast,  doubtless,  by  benignant  upper  Influence,  into  a  healing  sleep,  the 
heavy  dreams  rolled  gradually  away,  and  I  awoke  to  a  new  Heaven  and 
a  new  Earth.  The  first  preliminary  moral  Act,  Annihilation  of  Self 
(Sebst-tddtung),  had  been  happily  accomplished ;  and  my  mind's  eyes 
were  now  unsealed,  and  its  hands  ungyved." 

Might  we  not  also  conjecture  that  the  following  passage  refers  to  his 
Locality,  during  this  same  "  healing  sleep ;"  that  his  Pilgrim-staff*  lies 
cast  aside  hsre,  on  the  high  table-land ;"  and  indeed  that  the  repose  is 

/ 


THE  EVERLASTING  YEA. 


S3 


already  taking  wholesome  effect  on  him?  If  it  were  not  that  the  tone, 
in  some  parts,  has  more  of  riancy,  even  of  levity,  than  we  could  have 
expected !  However,  in  Teufelsdrockh,  there  is  always  the  strangest 
Dualism:  light  dancing  with  guitar-music,  will  be  going  on  in  the  fore- 
court, while  by  fits  from  within  comes  the  faint  vhimpering  of  woe  and 
wail.    We  transcribe  the  piece  entire : 

"  Beautiful  it  was  to  sit  there,  as  in  my  skyey  Tent,  musing  and  me- 
ditating; on  the  high  table-land,  in  front  of  the  Mountains;  over  me,  as 
roof,  the  azure  Dome,  and  around  me,  for  walls,  four  azure  flow;ng 
curtains, — namely,  of  the  Four  azure  Winds,  on  whose  bottom-fringes 
also  I  have  seen  gilding.  And  then  to  fancy  the  fair  Castles  that 
stood  sheltered  in  these  Mountain  hollows ;  with  their  green  flower 
lawns,  and  white  dames  and  damosels,  lovely  enough :  or  better  still,  the 
straw-roofed  Cottages,  wherein  stood  many  a  Mother  baking  bread,  with 
her  children  round  her : — all  hidden  and  protectingly  folded  up  in  the 
valley-folds  ;  yet  there  and  alive,  as  sure  as  if  I  beheld  them.  Or  to  see, 
as  well  as  fancy,  the  nine  Towns  and  Villages,  that  lay  round  my  moun- 
tain-seat, which,  in  still  weather,  were  wont  to  speak  to  me  (by  their 
steeple-bells)  with  metal  tongue ;  and,  in  almost  all  weather,  proclaimed 
their  vitality  by  repeated  Smoke-clouds ;  whereon,  as  on  a  culinary  horo- 
loge, I  might  read  the  hour  of  the  day.  For  it  was  the  smoke  of  cook- 
ery, as  kind  housewives,  at  morning,  midday,  eventide,  were  boiling 
their  husbands'  kettles ;  and  ever  a  blue  pillar  rose  up  into  the  air,  suc- 
cessively or  simultaneously,  from  each  of  the  nine,  saying,  as  plainly  as 
smoke  could  say:  Such  and  such  a  meal  is  getting  ready  here.  Not 
uninteresting  !  For  you  have  the  whole  Borough,  with  all  its  love-mak- 
ings and  scandal-mongeries,  contentions  and  contentments,  as  in  minia- 
ture, and  could  cover  it  all  with  your  hat. — If,  in  my  wide  Wayfarings, 
I  had  learned  to  look  into  the  business  of  the  World  in  its  details,  here 
perhaps  was  the  place  for  combining  it  into  general  propositions,  and 
deducing  inferences  therefrom. 

"  Often  also  could  I  seethe  black  Tempest  marching  in  anger  through 
the  Distance :  round  some  Schreckhorn,  as  yet  grim-blue,  would  the 
eddying  vapor  gather,  and  there  tumultuously  eddy,  and  flow  down  like 
a  mad  witch's  hair ;  till,  after  a  space,  it  vanished,  and  in  the  clear  sun- 
beam, your  Schreckhorn  stood  smiling  grim-white,  for  the  vapor  had 
held  snow.  How  thou  ferrnentest  and  elaboratest,  in  thy  great  ferment- 
ing-vat  and  laboratory  of  an  Atmosphere,  of  a  World,  O  Nature  ! — Or 
what  is  Nature  %  Ha  !  why  do  I  not  name  thee  God  1  Art  thou  not  the 
1  Living  Garment  of  God  V  O  Heavens,  is  it,  in  very  deed,  He  then 
that  ever  speaks  through  thee;  that  lives  and  loves  in  thee,  that  lives 
and  loves  in  me  % 

"  Foreshadows,  call  them  rather  fore-splendors,  of  that  Truth,  and 
Beginning  of  Truths,  fell  mysteriously  over  my  soul.  Sweeter  than 
Dayspring  to  the  Shipwrecked  in  Nova  Zembla  ;  ah  !  like  the  mother's 
voice  to  her  little  child  that  strays  bewildered,  weeping,  in  unknown 
tumults;  like  soft  streamings  of  celestial  music  to  my  too  exasperated 
heart,  came  that  Evangel.  The  Universe  is  not  dead  and  demoniacal,  a 
charnel-house  with  spectres ;  but  godlike,  and  my  Father's  ! 

"  With  other  eyes  too  could  I  now  look  upon  my  fellow  man  ;  with  an 
infinite  Love,  an  infinite  Pity.  Poor,  wrandering,  wayward  man !  Art 
thou  not  tried,  and  beaten  with  stripes,  even  as  I  ami  Ever,  whether 
thou  bear  the  Royal  mantle  or  the  Beggar's  gabardine,  art  thou  not  so 
weary,  so  heavy-laden;  and  thy  Bed  of  Rest  is  but  a  Grave.  O.  my 
Brother^my  Broth°r  !  why  cannot  I  shelter  thee  in  my  bosom,  and  wipe 
away  all  tears  from  thy  eyes. — Truly,  the  din  of  many-voiced  Life, 
which,  in  this  solitude,  with  the  mind's  organ,  I  could  hear,  was  no 
longer  a  maddening  discord,  but  a  melting  one  :  like  inarticulate  cries, 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


and  sobbings  of  a  dumb  creature,  which  in  the  ear  of  Heaven  are 
prayers.  The  poor  Earth,  with  her  poor  joys,  was  now  my  needy  Mo- 
ther, not  my  cruel  Stepdame ;  Man,  with  his  so  mad  Wants  and  so 
mean  Endeavors,  had  become  the  dearer  to  me ;  and  even  for  his  suffer- 
ings and  his  sins,  I  now  first  named  him  Brother.  Thus  was  I  standing 
in  the  porch  of  that  '  Sanctuary  of  Sorrow by  strange,  steep  ways,  had 
I  too  been  guided  thither ;  and  ere  long  its  sacred  gates  would  open,  and 
the  1  Divine  Depth  of  Sorrow'  lie  disclosed  to  me." 

The  Professor  says,  he  here  first  got  eye  on  the  Knot  that  had  been 
strangling  him,  and  straightway  could  unfasten  it,  and  was  free.  "  A 
vain  interminable  controversy,"  writes  he,  "  touching  what  is  at  present 
called  Origin  of  Evil,  or  some  such  thing,  arises  in  every  soul,  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world ;  and  in  every  soul,  that  would  pass  from  idle 
Suffering  into  actual  Endeavoring,  must  first  be  put  an  end  to.  The 
most,  in  our  lime,  have  to  go  content  with  a  simple,  incomplete  enough 
Suppression  of  this  controversy ;  to  a  few  some  Solution  of  it  is  indis- 
pensable. In  every  new  era,  too,  such  Solution  comes  out  in  different 
terms  ;  and  ever  the  Solution  of  the  last  era  has  become  obsolete,  and  is 
found  unserviceable.  For  it  is  man's  nature  to  change  his  Dialect  from 
I  century  to  century  ;  he  cannot  help  it  though  he  would.  The  authentic 
Church-Catechism  of  our  present  century  has  not  yet  fallen  into  my  hands : 
meanwhile,  for  my  own  private  behoof,  I  attempt  to  elucidate  the  matter 
so,  Man's  Unhappiuess,  as  I  construe,  comes  of  his  Greatness ;  it  is 
because  there  is  an  Infinite  in  him,  which  with  all  his  cunning  he  can- 
not quite  bury  under  the  Finite.  Will  the  whole  Finance  Ministers  and 
Upholsterers  and  Confectioners  of  modern  Europe  undertake,  in  joint- 
stock  company,  to  make  one  Shoeblack  happy'?  They  cannot  accom- 
plish it,  above  an  hour  or  two ;  for  the  Shoeblack  also  has  a  Soul  quite 
Other  than  his  Stomach;  and  would  require,  if  you  consider  it,  for  his 
permanent  satisfaction  and  saturation,  simply  this  allotment,  no  more, 
and  no  less  :  God's  infinite  Universe  altogether  to  himself,  therein  to  en- 
joy infinitely,  and  fill  every  wish  as  fast  as  it  rose.  Oceans  of  Hoch- 
neimer,  a  Throat  like  that  of  Ophiuchus :  speak  not  of  them;  to  the 
infinite  Shoeblack  they  are  as  nothing.  No  sooner  is  your  ocean  filled, 
than  he  grumbles  that  it  might  have  been  of  better  vintage.  Try  him 
with  half  of  a  Universe,  of  an  Omnipotence,  he  sets  to  quarrelling  with 
the  proprietor  of  the  other  half,  and  declares  himself  the  most  maltreated 
of  men. — Always  there  is  a  black  spot  in  our  sunshine  :  it  is  even,  as  I 
said,  the  Shadow  of  Ourselves. 

"  But  the  whim  we  have  of  Happiness  is  somewhat  thus.  By  certain 
valuations,  and  averages,  of  our  own  striking,  we  come  upon  some  sort 
of  average  terrestrial  lot;  this  we  fancy  belongs  to  us  by  nature,  and  of 
indefeasible  right.  It  is  simple  payment  of  our  wages,  of  our  deserts  ; 
requires  neither  thanks  nor  complaint :  only  such  overplus  as  there  may 
be  do  we  account  Happiness;  any  deficit  again  is  Misery.  Now  con- 
sider that  we  have  the  valuation  of  our  own  deserts  ourselves,  and  what 
a  fund  of  Self-conceit  there  is  in  each  of  us, — do  you  wonder  that  the. 
balance  should  so  often  dip  the  wrong  way,  and  many  a  Blockhead  cry  : 
See  there,  what  a  payment;  was  ever  worthy  gentleman  soused  !— I  tell 
thee,  Blockhead,  it  all  comes  of  thy  Vanity;  of  what  thou  fanciestfhose 
same  deserts  of  thine  to  be.  Fancy  that  thou  deservest  to  be  hanged  (as 
is  most  likely),  thou  wilt  feel  it  happiness  to  be  only  shot:  fancy  that  thou 
deservest  to  be  hanged  in  hair-halter,  it  will  be  a  luxury  to  die  in  hemp. 

"  So  true  is  it,  what  I  then  said,  that  the  Fraction  of  Life  can  be 
increased  in  value  not  so  much  by  increasing  your  Numerator  as  hj  less- 
ening your  Denominator.  Nay,  unless  my  Algebra  deceive  me.  Unity 
itself  divided  by  Zero  will  give  Infinity.    Make  thy  claim  of  wages  a 


THE  EVERLASTING  YEA. 


85 


zero,  then;  thou  hast  the  world  under  thy  feel.  Well  did  the  Wisest 
of  our  time  write  :  '  It  is  only  with  Renunciation  (Enbsageri)  that  Life, 
properly  speaking,  can  be  said  to  begin.' 

"  I  asked  myself:  What  is  this  thai,  ever  since  earliest  years,  thou  hast 
been  fretting  and  fuming,  and  lamenting  and  self-tormenting,  on  account 
of!  Say  it  in  a  word :  is  it  not  because  thou  art  not  happy'?  Because 
the  Thou  (sweet  gentleman)  is  not  sufficiently  honored,  nourished,  soft- 
bedded,  and  lovingly  cared  for  1  Foolish  soiil !  What  Act  of  Legisla- 
ture was  there  that  thou  shouldst  be  Happy  1  A  little  while  ago  thou 
hadst  no  right  to  be  at  all.  What  if  thou  wert  born  and  predestined  not 
to  be  Happy,  but  to  be  Unhappy !  Art  thou  nothing  other  than  a  Vul- 
ture, then,  that  fiiest  through  the  Universe  seeking  after  somewhat  to 
cat ;  and  shrieking  dolefully  because  carrion  enough  is  not  given  thee'? 
Close  thy  Byron ;  open  thy  Goethe." 

"Es  leuchtct  mir  ein,  I  see  a  glimpse  of  it !"  cries  he  elsewhere  :  "there 
is  in  man  a  Higher  than  Love  of  Happiness  :  he  can  do  without  Hap- 
piness, and  instead  thereof  find  Blessedness  !  Was  it  not  to  preach  forth 
this  same  Higher  that  sages  and  martyrs,  the  Poet  and  the  Priest,  in  all 
times,  have  spoken  and  suffered ;  bearing  testimony,  through  life  and 
through  death,  of  the  Godlike  that  is  in  Man,  and  how  in  the  Godlike 
only  has  he  Strength  and  Freedom'?  Which  God-inspired  doctrine  art 
thou  too  honored  to  be  taught ;  O  Heavens  !  and  broken  with  manifold 
merciful  Afflictions,  even  till  thou  become  contrite,  and  learn  it !  O 
thank  thy  Destiny  for  these ;  thankfully  bear  what  yet  remain :  thou 
hadst  need  of  them :  the  Self  in  thee  needed  to  be  annihilated.  By  benig- 
nant fever-paroxysms  is  Life  rooting  out  the  deep-seated  chronic  Disease, 
and  triumphs  over  Death.  On  the  roaring  billows  of  Time,  thou  art 
not  engulphed,  but  borne  aloft  in  the  azure  of  Eternity.  Love  not  Plea- 
sure ;  love  God.  This  is  the  Everlasting  Yea,  wherein  all  contradic- 
tion is  solved  ;  wherein  whoso  walks  and  works,  it  is  well  with  him.' 

And  again  :  "  Small  is  it  that  thou  canst  trample  the  Earth  with  its 
injuries  under  thy  feet,  as  old  Greek  Zeno  trained  thee  :  thou  canst  love 
the  Earth  while  it  injures  thee,  and  even  because  it  injures  thee ;  for 
this  a  Greater  than  Zeno  was  needed,  and  he  too  was  ^ent.  Knowest 
thou  that  "  Worship  of  Sorrow  ?"  The  Temple  thereof,  opened  some 
eighteen  centuries  ago,  now  lies  in  ruins,  overgrown  with  jungle,  the 
habitation  of  doleful  creatures;  nevertheless,  venture  forward;  in  a  low 
crypt,  arched  out  of  falling  fragments,  thou  findest  the  Altar  still  there, 
and  its  sacred  Lamp  perennially  burning." 

Without  pretending  to  comment  on  which  strange  utterances,  the  Edi- 
tor will  only  remark  that  there  lies  beside  them  much  of  a  still  more 
questionable  character ;  unsuited  to  the  general  apprehension ;  nay, 
wherein  he  himself  does  not  see  his  way.  Nebulous  disquisitions  on 
Religion,  yet  not  without  bursts  of  splendor  ;  on  the  "  perennial  conti- 
nuance of  Inspiration ;"  on  Prophecy ;  that  there  are  "  true  Priests,  as 
well  as  Baal-Priests,  in  our  own  day:"  with  more  of  the  like  sort. 
We  select  some  fractions,  by  way  of  finish  to  this  farrago. 

"Cease,  my  much-respected  Herr  von  Voltaire,"  thus  apostrophises 
the  Professor  :  "  shut  thy  sweet  voice  ;  for  the  task  appointed  thee  seems 
finished.  Sufficiently  hast  thou  demonstrated  this  proposition,  consider- 
able or  otherwise  :  That  the  Mythus  of  the  Christian  Religion  looks  nol 
in  the  eighteenth  century  as  it  did  in  the  eighth.  Alas,  were  thy  six- 
and-thirty  quartos,  and  the  six-and-thirty  thousand  other  quartos  and 
folios,  and  flying  sheets  or  reams,  printed  before  and  since  on  the  same 
subject,  all  needed  to  convince  us  of  so  little  !  But  what  next  1  Wilt 
thou  help  us  to  embody  the  divine  Spirit  of  that  Religion  in  a  new  My- 
thus, in  a  new  vehicle  and  vesture,  that  our  Souls,  otherwise  too  like 


86 


BAR TOR  KESARTUS. 


perishing,  may  Jive  %  What  !  thou  hast  no  faculty  in  that  kind  1  Only 
a  torch  for  burning,  no  hammer  for  building'?  Take  our  thanks,  then, 
and  thyself  away. 

"Meanwhile,  what  are  antiquated  Mythuses  to  me'?  Or  is  the  God 
present,  felt  in  my  own  Heart,  a  thing  which  Herr  von  Voltaire  will 
dispute  out  of  me  ;  or  dispute  into  me  1  To  the  "  Worship  of  Sorrow" 
ascribe  what  origin  and  genesis  thou  pleasest,  has  not  that  worship  ori- 
ginated, and  been  generated:  is  it  not  here?  Feel  it  in  thy  heart,  and 
then  say  whether  it  is  of  God  !  This  is  Belief;  all  else  is  Opinion — for 
which  latter  whoso  will  let  him  worry  and  be  worried." 

"  Neither,"  observes  he  elsewhere,  "  shall  ye  tear  out  one  another's 
eyes,  struggling  over  '  Plenary  Inspiration,'  and  such  like :  try  rather  to 
get  a  little  even  Partial  Inspiration,  each  of  you  for  himself.  One  Bible 
I  know,  of  whose  Plenary  Inspiration  doubt ^is  not  so  much  as  possible ; 
nay,  with  my  own  eyes  I  saw  the  God;s-Hand  writing  it :  thereof 
all  other  Bibles  are  but  Leaves — say,  in  Picture-Writing  to  assist  the 
weaker  faculty." 

Or  to  give  the  wearied  reader  relief,  and  bring  it  to  an  end,  let  him 
take  the  following  perhaps  more  intelligible  passage : 

"  To  me,  in  this  our  Life,"  says  the  Professor,  "  which  is  an  interne- 
cine warfare  with  the  Time-spirit,  other  warfare  seems  questionable. 
Hast  thou  in  any  way  a  Contention  with  thy  brother,  I  advise  thee,  think- 
well  what  the  meaning  thereof  is.  If  thou  gauge  it  to  the  bottom  it  is 
simply  this  :  <  Fellow,  see  !  thou  art  taking  more  than  thy  share  of  Hap- 
piness in  the  world,  something  from  my  share  :  which,  by  the  Heavens, 
thou  shalt  not ;  nay,  I  will  fisht  thee  rather.' — Alas !  and  the  whole  lot 
to  be  divided  is  such  a  beggarly  matter,  truly  a  e  feast  of  shells,'  for  the 
substance  has  been  spilled  out :  not  enough  to  quench  one  Appetite;  and 
the  collective  human  species  clutching  at  them! — Can  we  not, in  all  such 
cases,  rather  say  :  'Take  it,  thou  too-ravenous  individual;  take  that 
pitiful  additional  fraction  of  a  share,  which  I  reckoned  mine,  but  which 
thou  so  wantest ;  take  it  with  a  blessing :  would  to  Heaven  I  had  enough 
for  thee  !' — If  Fichte's  Wissenschaftslehre  be  {to  a  certain  extent,  Ap- 
plied Christianity,'  surely  to  a  still  greater  extent,  so  is  this.  We  have 
here  not  a  Whole  Duty  of  Man,  yet  a  Half  Duty,  namely,  the  Passive 
half:  could  we  but  do  it,  as  we  can  demonstrate  it  \ 

"But  indeed  Conviction,  were  it  never  so  excellent,  is  worthless  till  it 
convert  itself  into  Conduct.  Nay,  properly,  Conviction  is  not  possible 
till  then  ;  inasmuch  as  all  speculation  is  by  nature  endless,  formless,  a 
vortex  amid  vortices  :  only,  by  a  felt  indubitable  certainty  of  Experience, 
does  it  find  any  centre  to  revolve  round,  and  so  fashion  itself  into  a 
system.  Most  true  is  it,  as  a  wise  man  teaches  us,  that '  Doubt  of  any 
sort  cannot  be  removed  except  by  Action.'  On  which  ground  too  let 
him  who  gropes  painfully  in  darkness  or  uncertain  light,  and  pray? 
vehemently  that  the  dawn  may  ripen  into  day,  lay  this  other  prcrr[  I 
well  to  heart,  which  to  me  was  of  invaluable  service :  '  Bo  the  Duh, 
n-hich  lies  nearest  thee.'  which  thou  knowest  to  be  a  Duty  !  Thy  second 
Duly  will  already  have  become  clearer. 

May  we  not  say,  however,  that  the  hour  of  Spiritual  Enfranchisement 
is  even  this  :  When  your  Ideal  World,  wherein  the  whole  man  has  been 
dimly  struggling  and  inexpressibly  languishing  to  work,  becomes, 
revealed,  and  thrown  open  ;  and  you  discover,  with  amazement  enough, 
like  the  Lothario  in  Wilhelm  3Ieister,  that  your  *  America  is  here  or 
nowhere  ?'  The  Situation  that  has  not  its  Duty,  its  Ideal,  was  never  yet 
occupied  by  man.  Yes,  here,  in  this  poor,  miserable,  hampered,  despica- 
ble Actual,  wherein  thou  even  now  standest,  here  or  nowhere  is  thy 


PAUSE. 


87 


Ideal  :  work  it  out  therefrom  ;  and  working,  believe,  live,  be  free. 
Fool !  the  Ideal  is  in  thyself,  the  Impediment  too  is  in  thyself:  thy  Con- 
dition is  but  the  stuff  thou  art  to  shape  that  same  Ideal  out  of :  what 
matters  whether  such  stuff  be  of  this  sort  or  of  that,  so  the  Form  thou 
give  it  be  heroic,  be  poetic  ?  O  thou  that  pinest  in  the  imprisonment  of 
the  Actual,  and  criest  bitterly  to  the  gods  for  a  kingdom  wherein  to  rule 
and  create,  know  this  of  a  .truth  :  the  thing  thou  seekest  is  already  with 
thee,  '  here  or  nowhere,'  couldst  thou  only  see  ! 

"  But  it  is  with  man's  Soul  as  it  was  with  Nature  :  the  beginning  of 
Creation  is — Light.  Till  the  eye  have  vision,  the  whole  members  are 
in  bonds.  Divine  moment,  when  over  the  tempest-tost  Soul,  as  once 
over  the  wild-weltering  Chaos,  it  is  spoken  :  Let  there  be  Light  !  Ever 
to  the  greatest  that  has  felt  such  moment,  is  it  not  miraculous  and  God- 
announcing  even  as,  under  simpler  figures,  to  the  simplest  and  least  ? 
The  mad  primeval  Discord  is  hushed  ;  the  rudely-jumbled  conflicting 
elements  bind  themselves  into  separate  Firmaments  :  deep  silent  rock- 
foundations  are  built  beneath  ;  and  the  skyey  vault  with  its  everlasting 
Luminaries  above:  instead  of  a  dark  wasteful  Chaos,  we  have  a  bloom- 
ing, fertile,  Heaven-encompassed  World. 

"  I  too  could  now  say  to  myself :  Be  no  longer  a  Chaos,  but  a  World, 
or  even  Worldkin.  Produce  !  Produce  !  Were  it  but  the  pitifullest  I 
infinitesimal  fraction  of  a  Product,  produce  it  in  God's  name  !  'Tis  the 
utmost  thou  hast  in  thee;  out  with  it  then.  Up,  up  !  Whatsoever  thy 
hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  whole  might.  Work  while  it  is  called 
To-day,  for  the  Night  cometh  wherein  no  man  can  work." 


CHAPTER  X. 

PAUSE. 

Thus  have  we,  as  closely  and  perhaps  satisfactorily  as,  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, might  be,  followed  Teufelsdrockh  through  the  various 
successive  states  and  stages  of  Growth,  Entanglement,  Unbelief,  and 
almost  Reprobation,  into  a  certain  clearer  state  of  what  he  himself  seems 
to  consider  as  Conversion.  "  Blame  not  the  word,"  says  he ;  "  rejoice 
rather  that  such  a  word,  signifying  such  a  thing,  has  come  to  light  in  our 
Modern  Era,  though  hidden  from  the  wisest  Ancients.  The  Old  World 
knew  nothing  of  Conversion :  instead  of  an  Ecce  Homo,  they  had  only 
some  Choice  of  Hercules.  It  was  a  new-attained  progress  in  the  Moral 
Development  of  man  :  hereby  has  the  Highest  come  home  to  the  bo- 
soms of  the  most  Limited ;  what  to  Plato  was  but  a  hallucination,  and 
to  Socrates  a  chimera,  is  now  clear  and  certain  to  your  Zinzendorfs,  your 
Wesleys,  and  the  poorest  of  the  Pietists  and  Methodists." 

It  is  here  then  that  the  spiritual  majority  of  Teufelsdrockh  commences : 
we  are  henceforth  to  see  him  "Work  in  Well-doing,"  with  the  spirit  and 
clear  aims  of  a  Man.  He  has  discovered  that  the  Ideal  Workshop  he  so 
panted  for,  is  even  this  same  Actual  ill-furnished  Workshop  he  has  so 
long  been  stumbling  in.  He  can  say  to  himself:  "Tools?  Thou  hast 
no  Tools  ?    Why,  there  is  not  a  Man,  or  a  Thing,  now  alive  but  has 


88 


SARTOR  BB8ARTUS. 


Tools.    The  basest  of  created  animalcules,  the  Spider  itself,  has  a  spin- 
ning-jenny, and  warping-mill,  and  power-loom,  within  ils  head;  the 
stupidest  of  Oysters  has  a  Papin's-Digester,  with  stone-and-lime  house  lo 
hold  it  in:  every  being  that  can  live  can  do  something;  this  let  him 
do. — Tools?    Hast  thou  not  a  Brain,  furnished,  furnishable  with  some 
/glimmerings  of  Light ;  and  three  fingers  to  hold  a  Pen  withal  ?  Never 
^ since  Aaron's  Rod  went  out  of  practice,  or  even  before  it,  was  there  such 
;  a  wonder-working  Tool :  greater  than  all  recorded  miracles  have  been 
'v      performed  by  Pens.    For  strangely  in  this  so  solid-seeming  World,  which 
nevertheless  is  in  continual  restless  flux,  it  is  appointed  that  Sound,  le 
appearance  the  most  fleeting,  should  be  the  most  continuing  of  all  things. 
The  Word  is  well  said  to  be  omnipotent  in  this  world ;  man,  thereby 
divine,  can  create  as  by  a  Fiat.    Awake,  arise  !  Speak  forth  what  is  in 
thee  ;  what  God  has  given  thee,  what  the  Devil  shall  not  take  away. 
Higher  task  than  that  of  Priesthood  was  allotted  to  no  man  :  wert  thou 
but  the  meanest  in  that  sacred  Hierarchy,  is  it  not  honor  enough  therein 
to  spend  and  be  spent  ? 

"  By  this  Art,  which  whoso  will  may  sacrilegiously  degrade  into  a  handi- 
craft," adds  Teufelsdrockh,  "  have  I  thenceforth  abidden.  Writings  of 
mine,  not  indeed  known  as  mine  (for  what  am  1  ?),  have  fallen,  perhaps 
not  altogether  void,  into  the  mighty  seedfield  of  Opinion ;  fruits  of  my 
unseen  sowing  gratifyingly  meet  me  here  and  there.  I  thank  the  Heavens 
that  I  have  now  found  my  Calling  ;  wherein,  with  or  without  perceptible 
result,  I  am  minded  diligently  to  persevere. 

"  Nay,  how  knowest  thou,"  cries  he,  "  but  this  and  the  other  pregnant 
Device,  now  grown  to  be  a  world-renowned  far-working  Institution ;  like 
a  grain  of  right  mustard-seed  once  cast  into  the  right  soil,  and  now 
stretching  out  strong  boughs  to  the  four  winds,  for  the  birds  of  the  air  to 
lodge  in, — may  have  been  properly  my  doing  ?  Some  one's  doing  it  with- 
out doubt  was ;  from  some  Idea,  in  some  single  Head,  it  did  first  of  all 
take  beginning  :  why  not  from  some  Idea  in  mine  ?  "  Does  Teufels- 
drockh here  glance  at  that  "  Society  for  the  Conservation  or  Pro 
perty  (Eigenthums-conservirende  Gesellschaft),"  of  which  so  many  am- 
biguous notices  glide  spectre-like  through  these  inexpressible  Paperbags  ? 
"  An  Institution,"  hints  he,  "  not  unsuitable  to  the  wants  of  the  time ;  as 
indeed  such  sudden  extension  proves :  for  already  can  the  Society  num- 
ber, among  its  office-bearers  or  corresponding  members,  the  highest 
Names,  if  not  the  highest  Persons,  in  Germany,  England,  France ;  and 
contributions,  both  of  money  and  of  meditation,  pour  in  from  all  quarters; 
to,  if  possible,  enlist  the  remaining  Integrity  of  the  world,  and,  defen- 
sively and  with  forethought,  marshal  it  round  this  Palladium."  Does 
Teufelsdrockh  mean,  then,  to  give  himself  out  as  the  originator  of  that 
so  notable  Eigenthums-conservirende  ("  Ow-ndom  conserving")  Gcsell- 
schaft ;  and  if  so,  what  in  the  Devil's  name  is  it  ?  He  again  hints  :  "  At 
a  time  when  the  divine  Commandment,  Thou  shalt  not  steal,  wherein 
truly,  if  well  understood,  is  comprised  the  whole  Hebrew  Decalogue, 
with  Solon's  and  Lycurgus's  Constitutions,  Justinian's  Pandects,  the 
Code  Napoleon,  and  all  Codes,  Catechisms,  Divinities,  Moralities  what- 
soever, that  man  has  hitherto  devised  (and  enforced  with  Altar-fire  and 
Gallows-ropes)  for  his  social  guidance  :  at  a  time,  I  say,  when  this  divine 
Commandment  has  all  but  faded  away  from  the  general  remembrance; 
and,  with  little  disguise,  a  new  opposite  Commandment,  Thou  shalt  steal, 
is  everywhere  promulgated, — it  perhaps  behoved,  in  this  universal  dotage 
and  derilalion,  the  sound  portion  of  mankind  to  bestir  themselves  and 
rally.    When  the  widest  and  wildest  violations  of  that  divine  right  of 


PAUSE. 


89 


Property,  the  only  divine  right  now  extant  or  conceivable,  are  sanctioned 
and  recommended  by  a  vicious  Press,  and  the  world  has  lived  to  hear  it 
asserted  that  we  have  no  Property  in  our  very  Bodies,  but  only  an  acci- 
dental Possession  and  Liferent,  what  is  the  issue  to  be  looked  for  ?  Hang- 
men and  Catchpoles  may,  by  their  noose-gins  and  baited  fall-traps,  keep 
down  the  smaller  sort  of  vermin  :  but  what,  except  perhaps  some  such 
Universal  Association,  can  protect  us  against  whole  meat-devouring  and 
man-devouring  hosts  of  Boa  Constrictors  ?  If,  therefore,  the  more  seques- 
tered Thinker  have  wondered  in  his  privacy,  from  what  hand  that  per- 
haps not  ill-written  Program  in  the  Public  Journals,  with  its  high  Prize- 
Questions  and  so  liberal  Prizes,  could  have  proceeded, — let  him  now 
cease  such  wonder ;  and,  with  undivided  faculty,  betake  himself  to  the 
Concurrenz  (Competition)." 

We  ask :  Has  this  same  "  perhaps  not  ill-written  Program,'"  or  any 
other  authentic  Transaction  of  that  Property-conserving  Society,  fallen 
under  the  eye  of  the  British  Reader,  in  any  Journal,  foreign  or  domestic  ? 
If  so,  what  are  those  Prize-Questions ;  what  are  the  terms  of  Competi 
tion,  and  when  and  where?  No  printed  Newspaper  leaf,  no  farther 
light  of  any  sort,  to  be  met  with  in  these  Paperbags  !  Or  is  the  whole 
business  one  other  of  those  whimsicalities,  and  perverse  inexplicabilities, 
whereby  Herr  Teufelsdrockh,  meaning  much  or  nothing,  is  pleased  so 
often  to  play  fast  and  loose  with  us  ? 

Here,  indeed,  at  length,  must  the  Editor  give  utterance  to  a  painful 
suspicion,  which,  through  late  Chapters,  has  begun  to  haunt  him ;  paralys- 
ing any  little  enthusiasm,  that  might  still  have  rendered  his  thorny  Bio- 
graphical task  a  labor  of  love.  It  is  a  suspicion  grounded  perhaps  on 
trifles,  yet  confirmed  almost  into  certainty  by  the  more  and  more  discern- 
able  humoristico-satirical  tendency  of  Teufelsdrockh,  in  whom  under- 
ground humors,  and  intricate  sardonic  rogueries,  wheel  within  wheel, 
defy  all  reckoning :  a  suspicion,  in  one  word,  that  these  Auto-biographical 
Documents  are  partly  a  Mystification !  What  if  many  a  so-called  Fact 
were  little  better  than  a  Fiction;  if  here  we  had  no  direct  Camera- 
obscura  Picture  of  the  Professor's  History  ;  but  only  some  more  or  less 
fantastic  Adumbration,  symbolically,  perhaps  significantly  enough,  sha- 
dowing forth  the  same  !  Our  theory  begins  to  be  that,  in  receiving  as 
literally  authentic  what  was  but  hieroglyphically  so,  Hofrath  Heusch- 
recke,  whom  in  that  case  we  scruple  not  to  name  Hofrath  Nose-of-Wax, 
was  made  a  fool  of,  and  set  adrift  to  make  fools  of  others.  Could  it  be 
expected,  indeed,  that  a  man  so  known  for  impenetrable  reticence  as 
Teufelsdrockh,  would  all  at  once  frankly  unlock  his  private  citadel  to  an 
English  Editor  and  a  German  Hofrath ;  and  not  rather  deceptively  Mock 
both  Editor  and  Hofrath,  in  the  labyrinthic  tortuosities  and  covered  ways 
of  said  citadel  (having  enticed  them  thither),  to  see,  in  his  half-devilish 
way,  how  the  fools  would  look  ? 

Of  one  fool,  however,  the  Herr  Professor  will  perhaps  find  himself 
short.  On  a  small  slip,  formerly  thrown  aside  as  blank,  the  ink  being 
all  but  invisible,  we  lately  notice,  and  with  effort  decipher,  the  following : 
"  What  are  your  historical  Facts  ;  still  more  your  biographical  ?  Wilt 
thou  know  a  Man,  above  all,  a  Mankind,  by  stringing  together  beadrolls 
of  what  thou  namest  Facts  ?  The  man  is  the  spirit  he  worked  in ;  not 
what  he  did,  but  what  he  became.  Facts  are  engraved  Hierograms,  for 
which  the  fewest  have  the  key.  And  then  how  your  Blockhead  (Dumm- 
kopf)  studies  not  their  Meaning ;  but  simply  whether  they  are  well  or  ill 
cut,  what  he  calls  Moral  or  Immoral !  Still  worse  is  it  with  your  Bungler 
(JPfusch&r)  :  such  I  have  seen  reading  some  Rousseau,  with  pretences  of 


90 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


interpretation ;  and  mistaking  the  ill-cut  Serpent  of  Eternity  for  a  common 
poisonous  Reptile."  Was  the  Professor  apprehensive  lest  an  Editor, 
selected  as  the  present  boasts  himself,  might  mistake  the  Teufelsdrockh 
Serpent-of-Eternity  in  like  manner  ?  For  which  reason  it  was  to  be  alter- 
ed, not  without  underhand  satire,  into  a  plainer  Symbol  ?  Or  is  this 
merely  one  of  his  half-sophisms,  half-truisms,  which  if  he  can  but  set  on 
the  back  of  a  Figure,  he  cares  not  whither  it  gallop  ?  We  say  not  with 
certainty ;  and  indeed,  so  strange  is  the  Professor,  can  never  say.  If 
our  Suspicion  be  wholly  unfounded,  let  his  own  questionable  ways,  not 
our  necessary  circumspectness,  bear  the  blame. 

But  be  this  as  it  will,  the  somewhat  exasperated  and  indeed  exhausted 
Editor  determines  here  to  shut  these  Paperbags  for  the  present.  Let  it 
suffice  that  we  know  of  Teufelsdrockh,  so  far,  if,  "  not  what  he  did,  yet 
what  he  became  : "  the  rather,  as  his  character  has  now  taken  its  ulti- 
mate bent,  and  no  new  revolution,  of  importance,  is  to  be  looked  for. 
The  imprisoned  Chrysalis  is  now  a  winged  Psyche;  and  such,  where- 
soever be  its  flight,  it  will  continue.  To  trace  by  what  complex  gyra- 
tions (flights  or  involuntary  waftings)  through  the  mere  external  Life- 
element,  Teufelsdrockh  reaches  his  University  Professorship,  and  the 
Psyche  clothes  herself  in  civic  Titles,  without  altering  her  now  fixed 
nature, — would  be  comparatively  an  unproductive  task  ;  were  we  even 
unsuspicious  of  its  being,  for  us  at  least,  a  false  and  impossible  one.  His 
outward  Biography,  therefore,  which,  at  the  Blumine  Lover's  Leap,  we 
saw  churned  into  spray-vapor,  may  hover  in  that  condition,  for  aught 
that  concerns  us  here.  Enough  that  by  survey  of  certain  '*  pools  and 
plashes,"  we  have  ascertained  its  general  direction :  do  we  not  already 
know  that,  by  one  way  and  other,  it  has  long  since  rained  down  again 
into  a  stream ;  and  even  now,  at  Weissnichtwo,  flows  deep  and  still, 
fraught  with  the  Philosophy  of  Clothes,  and  visible  to  whoso  will  cast 
eye  thereon  ?  Over  much  invaluable  matter  that  lies  scattered,  like 
jewels  among  quarry-rubbish,  in  those  Paper-catacombs,  we  may  have 
occasion  to  glance  back,  and  somewhat  will  demand  insertion  at  the 
right  place  :  meanwhile  be  our  toilsome  diggings  therein  suspended. 

If  now,  before  re-opening  the  great  Clothes-Volume,  we  ask  what  our 
degree  of  progress,  during  these  Ten  Chapters,  has  been,  towards  right 
understanding  of  the  Clothes-Philosophy,  let  not  our  discouragement 
become  total.  To  speak  in  that  old  figure  of  the  Hell-gate  Bridge  over 
Chaos,  a  few  flying  pontoons  have  perhaps  been  added,  though  as  yet 
they  drift  straggling  on  the  Flood ;  how  far  they  will  reach,  when  once 
the  chains  are  straightened  and  fastened,  can,  at  present,  only  be  matter 
of  conjecture. 

So  much  we  already  calculate.  Through  many  a  little  loophole,  we 
have  had  glimpses  into  the  internal  world  of  Teufelsdrockh  :  his  strange 
mystic,  almost  magic  Diagram  of  the  Universe,  and  how  it  was  gradually- 
drawn,  is  not  henceforth  altogether  dark  to  us.  Those  mysterious  ideas 
on  Time,  which  merit  consideration,  and  are  not  wholly  unintelligible 
with  such,  may  by  and  by  prove  significant.  Still  more  may  his  some- 
what peculiar  view  of  Nature ;  the  decisive  Oneness  he  ascribes  to 
Nature.  How  all  Nature  and  Life  are  but  one  Garment,  a  "  Living 
Garment,"  woven  and  ever  a-weaving  in  the  "  Loom  of  Time  : "  is  not 
here,  indeed,  the  outline  of  a  whole  Clothes  Philosophy ;  at  least  the 
arena  it  is  to  work  in  ?  Remark  too  that  the  Character  of  the  man, 
nowise  without  meaning  in  such  a  matter,  becomes  less  enigmatic :  amid 
so  much  tumultuous  obscurity,  almost  like  diluted  madness,  do  not  a 
certain  indomitable  Defiance  and  yet  a  boundless  Reverence  seem  to 


PAUSE. 


91 


loom  forth  as  the  two  mountain  summits,  on  whose  rock-strata  all  the 
rest  were  based  and  built  ? 

Nay,  further,  may  we  not  say  that  Teufelsdrockh's  Biography,  allowing 
it  even,  as  suspected,  only  a  hieroglyphical  truth,  exhibits  a  man,  as  it 
were  preappointed  for  Clothes-Philosophy  ?  To  look  through  the  Shows 
of  things  into  Things  themselves  he  is  led  and  compelled.  The  "  Pas- 
sivity" given  him  by  birth  is  fostered  by  all  turns  of  his  fortune.  Every- 
where cast  out,  like  oil  out  of  water,  from  mingling  in  any  Employment, 
in  any  public  Communion,  he  has  no  portion  but  Solitude,  and  a  life  of 
Meditation.  The  whole  energy  of  his  existence  is  directed,  through  long 
years,  on  one  task  :  that  of  enduring  pain,  if  he  cannot  cure  it.  Thus 
everywhere  do  the  Shows  of  things  oppress  him,  withstand  him,  threaten 
him  with  fearfullest  destruction  :  only  by  victoriously  penetrating  into 
Things  themselves  can  he  find  peace  and  a  stronghold.  But  is  not  this 
same  looking  through  the  Shows  or  Vestures  into  the  Things  even  the 
first  preliminary  to  a  Philosophy  of  Clothes  ?  Do  we  not,  in  all  this,  dis- 
cern some  beckonings  towards  the  true  higher  purport  of  such  a  Philoso- 
phy ;  and  what  shape  it  must  assume  with  such  a  man,  in  such  an  era  ? 

Perhaps  in  entering  on  Book  Third,  the  courteous  Reader  is  not  utterly 
without  guess  whither  he  is  bound  :  nor,  let  us  hope,  for  all  the  fantastic 
Dream-Grottoes  through  which,  as  is  our  lot  with  Teufelsdrockh,  he 
must  wander,  will  there  be  wanting  between  whiles  some  twinkling  of  a 
steady  Polar  Star. 


92 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


BOOK  III. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INCIDENT  IN  MODERN  HISTORY. 

As  a  wonder-loving  and  wonder-seeking  man,  Teufelsdrockh,  from  an 
early  part  of  this  Clothes- Volume,  has  more  and  more  exhibited  himself. 
Striking  it  was,  amid  all  his  perverse  cloudiness,  with  what  force 
of  vision  and  of  heart  he  pierced  into  the  mystery  of  the  World  ;  recogniz- 
ing in  the  highest  sensible  phenomena,  so  far  as  Sense  went,  only  fresh 
or  faded  Raiment ;  yet  ever,  under  this,  a  celestial  Essence  thereby  ren- 
dered visible  :  and  while,  on  the  one  hand,  he  trod  the  old  rags  of  Mat- 
ter, with  their  tinsels,  into  the  mire,  he  on  the  other  everywhere  exalted 
Spirit  above  all  earthly  principalities  and  powers,  and  worshipped  it, 
though  under  the  meanest  shapes,  with  a  true  Platonic  Mysticism. 
What  the  man  ultimately  purposed  by  thus  casting  his  Greek-fire  into 
the  general  Wardrobe  of  the  Universe  ;  what  such,  more  or  less  complete, 
rending  and  burning  of  Garments  throughout  the  whole  compass  of  Civil- 
ized Life  and  Speculation,  should  lead  to;  the  rather  as  he  was  no  Ada- 
mite, in  any  sense,  and  could  not,  like  Rousseau,  recommend  either 
bodily  or  intellectual  Nudity,  and  a  return  to  the  savage  state  ;  all  this  our 
readers  are  now  bent  to  discover  ;  this  is,  in  fact,  properly  the  gist  and 
purport  of  Professor  Teufelsdrdckh's  Philosophy  of  Clothes. 

Be  it  remembered,  however,  that  such  purport  is  here  not  so  much 
evolved  as  detected  to  lie  ready  for  evolving.  We  are  to  guide  our 
British  Friends  into  the  new  Gold-country,  and  show  them  the  mines  ; 
nowise  to  dig  out  and  exhaust  its  wealth,  which  indeed  remains  for  all 
time  inexhaustible.  Once  there,  let  each  dig  for  his  own  behoof,  and 
enrich  himself. 

Neither,  in  so  capricious  inexpressible  a  Work  as  this  of  the  Profes- 
sor's, can  our  course  now  more  than  formerly  be  straightforward,  step  by 
step,  but  at  best  leap  by  leap.  Significant  Indications  stand  out  here  and 
there ;  which  for  the  critical  eye,  that  looks  both  widely  and  narrowly, 
shape  themselves  into  some  ground-scheme  of  a  Whole  :  to  select  these 
with  judgment,  so  that  a  leap  from  one  to  the  other  be  possible,  and  (in 
our  old  figure)  by  chaining  them  together,  a  passable  Bridge  be  effected  : 
this  as  heretofore  continues  our  only  method.  Among  such  light-spots, 
the  following,  floating  in  much  wild  matter  about  Perfectibility,  has 
seemed  worth  clutching  at : 

(t Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  incident  in  Modern  History,"  says 
Teufelsdrockh,  "is  not  the  Diet  of  Worms,  still  less  the  Battle  of  Auster- 
litz,  Waterloo,  Peterloo,  or  any  other  Battle;  but  an  incident  passed 
carelessly  over  by  most  Historians,  and  treated  with  some  degree  of  ridi- 
cule by  others  :  namely,  George  Fox's  making  to  himself  a  Suit  of  Lea- 
ther. This  man,  the  first  of  the  Quakers,  and  by  trade  a  Shoemaker,  was 
one  of  those,  to  whom,  under  ruder  or  purer  form,  the  Divine  Idea  of  the 
Universe  is  pleased  to  manifest  itself;  and,  across  all  the  hulls  of  Igno- 
rance and  earthly  Degradation,  shine  through,  in  unspeakable  Awfulness, 
unspeakable  Beauty,  on  their  souls  :  who  therefore  are  rightly  accounted 
Prophets,  God-possessed ;  or  even  Gods,  as  in  some  periods  it  has  chanc- 
ed. Sitting  in  his  stall ;  working  on  tanned  hides,  amid  pincers,  paste- 
horns,  rosin,  swine-bristles,  and  a  nameless  flood  of  rubbish,  this  youth 
had  nevertheless  a  Living  Spirit  belonging  to  him ;  also  an  antique 


INCIDENT  IN  MODERN  HISTORY 


93 


Inspired  Volume,  through  which,  as  through  a  window,  it  could  look  up--' 
wards,  and  discern  its  celestial  Home.  The  task  of  a  daily  pair  of  shoes, 
coupled  even  with  some  prospect  of  victuals,  and  an  honorable  Master- 
ship in  Cordwainery,  and  perhaps  the  post  of  Thirdborough  in  his  Hun- 
dred, as  the  crown  of  long  faithful  sewing, — was  nowise  satisfaction 
enough  to  such  a  mind :  but  ever  amid  the  boring  and  hammering  came 
tones  from  that  far  country,  came  Splendors  and  Terrors  ;  for  this  poor 
Cordwainer,  as  we  said,  was  a  Man ;  and  the  Temple  of  Immensity,  where- 
in as  Man  he  had  been  sent  to  minister,  was  full  of  holy  mystery  to  him. 

"  The  Clergy  of  the  neighborhood,  the  ordained  Watchers  and  Inter- 
preters of  that  same  holy  mystery,  listened  with  unaffected  tedium  to  his 
consultations,  and  advised  him,  as  the  solution  of  such  doubts,  to  "  drink 
beer,  and  dance  with  the  girls."  Blind  leaders  of  the  blind  !  For  what  / 
<md  were  their  tithes  levied  and  eaten  ;  for  what  were  their  shovel-hats 
scooped  out,  and  their  surplices  and  cassock-aprons  girt  on  ;  and  such  a 
church-repairing,  and  chaffering,  and  organing,  and  other  racketting,  1 
held  over  that  spot  of  God's  Earth, — if  Man  were  but  a  Patent  Digester,  I 
and  the  Belly  with  its  adjuncts  the  grand  Reality  ?  Fox  turned  from  1 
them,  with  tears  and  a  sacred  scorn,  back  to  his  Leather-parings  and  his 
Bible.  Mountains  of  encumbrance,  higher  than  iEtna,  had  been  heaped 
over  that  Spirit :  but  it  was  a  Spirit,  and  would  not  lie  buried  there. 
Through  long  days  and  nights  of  silent  agony,  it  struggled  and  wrestled, 
with  a  man's  force,  to  be  free :  how  its  prison-mountains  heaved  and 
swayed  tumultuously,  as  the  giant  spirit  shook  them  to  this  hand  and  that, 
and  emerged  into  the  light  of  Heaven  !  That  Leicester  shoe-shop,  had 
men  known  it,  was  a  holier  place  than  any  Vatican  or  Loretto-shrine. — 
"  So  bandaged,  and  hampered,  and  hemmed  in,"  groaned  he,  (l  with  thou- 
sand requisitions,  obligations,  straps,  tatters,  and  tagrags,  I  can  neither 
see  nor  move :  not  my  own  am  I,  but  the  World's  ;  and  Time  flies  fast, 
and  Heaven  is  high,  and  Hell  is  deep :  Man !  bethink  thee,  if  though  hast 
power  of  thought !  Why  not ;  what  binds  me  here  ?  Want !  Want ! — 
Ha,  of  what  ?  Will  all  the  shoe-wages  under  the  Moon  ferry  me  across 
into  that  far  Land  of  Light  ?  Only  Meditation  can,  and  devout  Prayer 
to  God.  I  will  to  the  woods  :  the  hollow  of  a  tree  will  lodge  me,  wild 
berries  feed  me ;  and  for  Clothes,  cannot  I  stitch  myself  one  perennial  Suit 
of  Leather !" 

"  Historical  Oil-painting,"  continues  Teufelsdrockh, "  is  one  of  the  Arts 
I  never  practised ;  therefore  shall  I  not  decide  whether  this  subject  were 
easy  of  execution  on  the  canvass.  Yet  often  has  it  seemed  to  me  as  if 
such  first  outfiashing  of  man's  Freewill,  to  lighten,  more  and  more  into 
Day,  the  Chaotic  Night  that  threatened  to  engulf  him  in  its  hindrances 
and  its  horrors,  were  properly  the  only  grandeur  there  is  in  History. 
Let  some  living  Angelo  or  Rosa,  with  seeing  eye  and  understanding- 
heart,  picture  George  Fox  on  that  morning,  when  he  spreads  out  his  cut- 
ting-board for  the  last  time,  and  cuts  cow-hides  by  unwonted  patterns, 
and  stitches  them  together  into  one  continuous  all-including  Case,  the 
farewell  service  of  his  awl !  Stitch  away,  thou  noble  Fox :  every  prick 
of  that  little  instrument  is  pricking  into  the  heart  of  Slavery,  and  World- 
worship,  and  the  Mammon-god.  Thy  elbows  jerk,  as  in  strong  swimmer- 
strokes,  and  every  stroke  is  bearing  thee  across  the  Prison-ditch,  within 
which  Vanity  holds  her  Work-house  and  Rag-fair,  into  lands  of  true 
Liberty  ;  were  the  work  done,  there  is  in  broad  Europe  one  Free  Man, 
and  thou  art  he  ! 

Thus  from  the  lowest  depth  there  is  a  path  to  the  loftiest  height :  and 
for  the  Poor  also  a  Gospel  has  been  published.  Surely,  if,  as  l)'Alem- 
bert  asserts,  my  illustrious  namesake,  Diogenes,  was  the  greatest  man  of 
Antiquity,  only  that  he  wanted  Decency,  then  by  stronger  reason  it- 


94 


BARTOB  RRSARTUS. 


George  Fox  the  greatest  of  the  Moderns;  and  greater  than  Diogenes 
himself :  for  he  too  stands  on  the  adamantine  basis  of  his  Manhood,  cast- 
ing aside  all  props  and  shoars ;  yet  not,  in  half-savage  Pride,  undervalu- 
ing the  Earth ;  valuing  it  rather,  as  a  place  to  yield  him  warmth  and 
food,  he  looks  Heavenward  from  his  Earth,  and  dwells  in  an  element  of 
Mercy  and  Worship,  with  a  still  Strength,  such  as  the  Cynic's  Tub  did 
nowise  witness.  Great,  truly,  was  that  Tub  ;  a  temple  from  which  man's 
dignity  and  divinity  was  scornfully  preached  abroad  :  but  greater  is  the 
Leather  Hull,  for  the  same  sermon  was  preached  there,  and  not  in  Scorn 
but  in  Love." 

George  Fox's  "  perennial  suit,"  with  all  that  it  held,  has  been  worn 
quite  into  ashes  for  nigh  two  centuries  :  why,  in  a  discussion  on  the 
Perfectibility  of  Society,  reproduce  it  now?  Not  out  of  blind  sectarian 
partisanship :  Teufelsdrockh  himself  is  no  Quaker;  with  all  his  pacific 
tendencies,  did  we  not  see  him,  in  that  scene  at  the  North  Cape,  with 
the  Archangel  Smuggler,  exhibit  fire-arms  ? 

For  us,  aware  of  his  deep  Sansculottism,  there  is  more  meant  in  this 
passage  than  meets  the  ear.  At  the  same  time,  who  can  avoid  smiling 
at  the  earnestness  and  Boeotian  simplicity  (if  indeed  there  be  not  an 
underhand  satire  in  it),  with  which  that  "  Incident"  is  here  brought  for- 
ward ;  and,  in  the  Professor's  ambiguous  way,  as  clearly  perhaps  as  he 
durst  in  Weissnichtwo,  recommended  to  imitation !  Does  Teufelsdrockh 
anticipate  that,  in  this  age  of  refinement,  any  considerable  class  of  the 
community,  by  way  of  testifying  against  the  "  Mammon-god,"  and  escap- 
ing from  what  he  calls  "  Vanity's  Workhouse  and  Ragfair,"  where 
doubtless  some  of  them  are  toiled  and  whipped  and  hoodwinked  suffi- 
ciently,— will  sheathe  themselves  in  close-fitting  cases  of  Leather  ?  The 
idea  is  ridiculous  in  the  extreme.  Will  Majesty  lay  aside  its  robes  of 
state,  and  Beauty  its  frills  and  train-gowns,  for  a  second  skin  of  tanned 
hide  ?  By  which  change  Huddersfield  and  Manchester,  and  Coventry 
and  Paisley,  and  the  Fancy-Bazaar,  were  reduced  to  hungry  solitudes ; 
and  only  Day  and  Martin  could  profit.  For  neither  would  Teufels- 
drbekh's  mad  daydream,  here  as  we  presume  covertly  intended,  of  level- 
ling Society  (levelling  it  indeed  with  a  vengeance,  into  one  huge  drowned 
marsh !),  and  so  attaining  the  political  effects  of  Nudity  without  its 
frigorific  or  other  consequences, — be  thereby  realised.  Would  not  the 
rich  man  purchase  a  waterproof  suit  of  Russian  Leather ;  and  the  high- 
born Belle  step  forth  in  red  or  azure  morocco,  lined  with  shamoy :  the 
"black  cowhide  being  left  to  the  Drudges  and  Gibeonites  of  the  world ; 
and  so  all  the  old  Distinctions  re-established  ? 

Or  has  the  Professor  his  own  deeper  intention;  and  laughs  in  his 
sleeve  at  our  strictures  and  glosses,  which  indeed  are  but  a  part  thereof? 


CHAPTER  II. 

CHURCH  CLOTHES. 

Not  less  questionable  is  his  Chapter  on  Church  C/o//ies,.which  has  the 
farther  distinction  of  being  the  shortest  in  the  Volume.  We  here  trans- 
late it  entire  : 

"  By  Church  Clothes,  it  need  not  be  premised,  that  I  mean  infinitely 
more  than  Cassocks  and  Surplices ;  and  do  not  at  all  mean  the  mere  hab- 
erdasher Sunday  Clothes  that  men  go  to  Church  in.  Far  from  it ! 
Church  Clothes  are,  in  our  vocabulary,  the  Forms,  the  Vestures,  under 
which  men  have  at  various  periods  embodied  and  represented  for  them- 
selves the  Religious  Principle;  that  is  to  say,  invested  the  Divine  Idea 


CHURCH  CLOTH  ES. 


95 


of  the  World  with  a  sensible  and  practically  active  Body,  so  that  it  might 
dwell  among  them  as  a  living  and  life-giving  Word. 

These  are  unspeakably  the  most  important  of  all  the  vestures  and 
garnitures  of  Human  Existence.  They  are  first  spun  and  woven,  I  may 
say,  by  that  wonder  of  wonders,  Society ;  for  it  is  still  only  when  "  two 
or  three  are  gathered  together"  that  Religion,  spiritually  existent,  and 
indeed  indestructible  however  latent,  in  each,  first  outwardly  manifests 
itself  (as  with  "  cloven  tongues  of  fire")  and  seeks  to  be  embodied  in  a 
visible  Communion,  and  Church  Militant.  Mystical,  more  than  magical, 
is  that  Communing  of  Soul  with  Soul,  both  looking  heavenward  :  here 
properly  Soul  first  speaks  with  Soul ;  for  only  in  looking  heavenward, 
take  it  in  what  sense  you  may,  not  in  looking  earthward,  does  what  we 
can  call  Union,  mutual  Love,  Society,  begin  to  be  possible.  How  true  is 
that  of  Novalis  :  "It  is  certain,  my  Belief  gains  quite  infinitely  the 
moment  I  can  convince  another  mind  thereof !"  Gaze  thou  in  the  face 
of  thy  Brother,  in  those  eyes  where  plays  the  lambent  fire  of  Kindness,  or 
in  those  where  rages  the  lurid  conflagration  of  Anger ;  feel  how  thy  own 
so  quiet  Soul  is  straightway  involuntarily  kindled  with  the  like,  and  ye 
blaze  and  reverberate  on  each  other,  till  it  is  all  one  limitless  confluent 
flame  (of  embracing  Love,  or  of  deadly-grappling  Hate)  ;  and  then  say 
what  miraculous  virtue  goes  out  of  man  into  man.  But  if  so,  through 
all  the  thick-plied  hulls  of  our  Earthly  Life  ;  how  much  more  when  it  is 
of  the  Divine  Life  we  speak,  and  inmost  Me  is,  as  it  were,  brought  into 
contact  with  inmost  Me  ! 

Thus  was  it  that  I  said,  the  Church  Clothes  are  first  spun  and  woven 
by  Society;  outward  Religion  originates  by  Society,  Society  becomes 
possible  by  Religion.  Nay,  perhaps  every  conceivable  Society,  past  and 
present,  may  well  be  figured  as  properly  and  wholly  a  Church,  in  one  or 
other  of  these  three  predicaments  :  an  audibly  preaching  and  prophesy- 
ing Church,  which  is  the  best ;  second,  a  Church  that  struggles  to  preach 
and  prophesy,  but  cannot  as  yet,  till  its  Pentecost  come  ;  and  third  and 
worst,  a  Church  gone  dumb  with  old  age,  or  which  only  mumbles  deli- 
rium prior  to  dissolution.  Whoso  fancies  that  by  Church  is  here  meant 
Chapterhouses  and  Cathedrals,  or  by  preaching  and  prophesying,  mere 
speech  and  chanting,  let  him,  sa«s  the  oracular  Professor,  read  on, 
light  of  heart  (getrosten  Muthes). 

But  with  regard  to  your  Church  proper,  and  the  Church  Clothes  spe- 
cially recognized  as  Church  Clothes,  I  remark,  fearlessly  enough,  that 
without  such  Vestures  and  sacred  Tissues  Society  has  not  existed,  and 
will  not  exist.  For  if  Government  is,  so  to  speak,  the  outward  skin  of 
the  Body  Politic,  holding  the  whole  together  and  protecting  it;  and  all 
your  Craft-Guilds,  and  Associations  for  Industry,  of  hand  or  of  head,  are 
the  Fleshly  Clothes,  the  muscular  and  osseous  Tissues  (lying  under  such 
skin),  whereby  Society  stands  and  works  ; — then  is  Religion  the  inmost 
Pericardial  and  Nervous  Tissue,  which  ministers  Life  and  warm  Circula- 
tion to  the  whole.  Without  which  Pericardial  Tissue  the  Bones  and 
Muscles  (of  Industry)  were  inert,  or  animated  only  by  a  Galvanic  vital- 
ity ;  the  skin  would  become  a  shrivelled  pelt,  or  fast-rotting  raw-hide  ; 
and  Society  itself  a  dead  carcass, — deserving  to  be  buried.  Men  were 
no  longer  Social,  but  Gregarious  ;  which  latter  state  also  could  not  con- 
tinue, but  must  gradually  issue  in  universal  selfish  discord,  hatred,  savage 
isolation,  and  dispersion ; — whereby,  as  we  might  continue  to  say,  the 
very  dust  and  dead  body  of  Society  would  have  evaporated  and  become 
abolished.  Such,  and  so  all-important,  all-sustaining,  are  the  Church 
Clothes,  to  civilized  or  even  to  rational  man. 

Meanwhile,  in  our  era  of  the  World,  those  same  Church  Clothes  have 
gone  sorrowfully  out  at  elbows :  nay,  far  worse,  many  of  them  have 
9 


96 


SARTOR  EESAETUS. 


become  mere  hollow  Shapes,  or  Masks,  under  which  no  living  Figure  or 
Spirit  any  longer  dwells ;  but  only  spiders  and  unclean  beetles,  in  horrid 
accumulation,  drive  their  trade;  and  the  Mask  still  glares  on  you  with 
its  glass-eyes,  in  ghastly  affectation  of  Life — some  generation  and  half 
after  Religion  has  quite  withdrawn  from  it,  and  in^  unnoticed  nooks  is 
weaving  for  herself  new  Vestures,  wherewith  to  reappear,  and  bless  us, 
or  our  sons  or  grandsons.  As  a  Priest,  or  Interpreter  of  the  Holy,  is  the 
noblest  and  highest  of  all  men,  so  is  a  Shampriest  (Scheinprieste r)  the 
falsest  and  basest :  neither  is  it  doubtful  that  his  Canonicals,  were  they 
Popes'  Tiaras,  will  one  day  be  torn  from  him,  to  make  bandages  for  the 
wounds  of  mankind ;  or  even  to  burn  into  tinder,  for  general  scientific  or 
culinary  purposes. 

All  which,  as  out  of  place  here,  falls  to  be  handled  in  my  Second  Vol- 
ume, On  the  Palingenesia,  or  New-birth  of  Society ;  which  volume,  as 
treating  practically  of  the  Wear,  Destruction,  and  Re-texture  of  Spiritual 
Tissues  or  Garments,  forms,  properly  speaking,  the  Transcendental  or 
ultimate  Portion  of  this  my  Work  on  Clothes,  and  is  already  in  a  state  of 
forwardness." 

And  herewith,  no  farther  exposition,  note,  or  commentary  being 
added,  does  Teufelsdrdckh,  and  must  his  Editor  now,  terminate  the  sin- 
gular Chapter  on  Church  Clothes  ! 


CHAPTER  III. 

SYMBOLS. 

Probably  it  will  elucidate  the  drift  of  these  foregoing  obscure  utter- 
ances, if  we  here  insert  somewhat  of  our  Professor's  speculations  on 
Symbols.  To  state  his  whole  doctrine,  indeed,  were  beyond  our  com- 
pass :  nowhere  is  he  more  mysterious,  impalpable,  than  in  this  of  "  Fan- 
tasy being  the  organ  of  the  Godlike;"  and  how  "  Man  thereby,  though 
based,  to  all  seeming,  on  the  small  Visible,  does  nevertheless  extend 
down  into  the  infinite  deeps  of  the  Invisible,  of  which  Invisible,  indeed, 
his  Life  is  properly  the  bodying  forth."  Let  us,  omitting  these  hhh 
transcendental  aspects  of  the  matter,  study  to  glean  (whether  from  the 
Paperbags  or  the  Printed  Volume)  what  little  seems  logical  and  practi- 
cal, and  cunningly  arrange  it  into  such  degree  of  coherence  as  it  will  as- 
sume.   By  way  of  proem,  take  the  following  not  injudicious  remarks  : 

"  The  benignant  efficacies  of  Concealment,"  cries  our  Professor,  "  who 
shall  speak  or  sing  ?  Silence  and  Secresy  !  Altars  might  still  be  raised 
to  them  (were  this  an  altar-building  time)  for  universal  worship. 
Silence  is  the  element  in  which  great  things  fashion  themselves  together; 
that  at  length  they  may  emerge,  full-formed  and  majestic,  into  the  day- 
light  of  Life,  which  they  are  thenceforth  to  rule.  Not  William  the 
Silent  only,  but  all  the  considerable  men  I  have  known,  and  the  most  un- 
diplomatic and  unstrategic  of  these,  forbore  to  babble  of  what  they  were 
creating  and  projecting.  Nay,  in  thy  own  mean  perplexities,  do  thou 
thyself  but  hold  thy  tongue  for  one  day  :  on  the  morrow,  how  much  clearer 
are  thy  purposes,  and  duties ;  what  wreck  and  rubbish  have  those  mute 
workmen  within  thee  swept  away,  when  intrusive  noises  were  shut  out ! 
/Speech  is  too  often  not,  as  the  Frenchman  defined  it,  the  art  of  concealing 
'Thought;  but  of  quite  stifling  and  suspending  thought,  so  that  there  is 
none  to  conceal.  Speech  too  is  great,  but  not  the  greatest.  As  the 
Swiss  Inscription  says  :  Sprcchen  ist  silbcm,  Schweigen  ist  golden  (Speech 
7-  is  silvern,  Silence  is  golden)  ;  or  as  I  might  rather  express  it :  Speech  is 
of  Time,  Silence  is  of  Eternity. 

/ 


O1B0LS. 


97 


"  Bees  will  not  work  except  in  darkness  ;  Thought  will  not  work  ex  / 
cept  in  Silence  :  neither  will  Virtue  work  except  in  Secresy.    Let  not  thy  - 
right  hand  know  what  thy  left  hand  doeth  !     Neither  shalt  thou  prate 
even  to  thy  own  heart  of  4  those  secrets  known  to  all.5    Is  not  Shame  I 
the  soil  of  all  Virtue,  of  all  good  manners,  and  good  morals  ?    Like  other 
plants,  Virtue  will  not  grow  unless  its  root  be  hidden,  buried  from  the  eye 
of  the  sun.    Let  the  sun  shine  on  it,  nay,  do  but  look  at  it  privily  thy-  ' 
self,  the  root  withers,  and  no  flower  will  glad  thee.    O  my  Friends,  when 
we  view  the  fair  clustering  flowers  that  over-wreathe,  for  example,  the 
Marriage-bower,  and  encircle  man's  life  with  the  fragrance  and  hues  of 
Heaven,  what  hand  will  not  smite  the  foul  plunderer  that  grubs  them  up 
by  the  roots,  and,  with  grinning,  grunting  satisfaction,  shows  us  the  dung 
they  flourish  in  !    Men  speak  much  of  the  Printing  Press  with  its  News- 
papers :  du  Himmel !  what  are  these  to  Clothes  and  the  Tailor's  Goose  ?" 

"  Of  kin  to  the  so  incalculable  influences  of  Concealment,  and  con- 
nected with  still  greater  things,  is  the  wondrous  agency  of  Symbols.  In 
a  Symbol  there  is  concealment  and  yet  revelation  :  here,  therefore, 
by  Silence  and  by  Speech  acting  together,  comes  a  doubled  significance 
And  if  both  the  Speech  be  itself  high,  and  the  Silence  fit  and  noble,  how 
expressive  will  their  union  be  !  Thus  in  many  a  painted  Device,  or  sim- 
ple Seal-emblem,  the  commonest  Truth  stands  out  to  us  proclaimed  with 
quite  new  emphasis. 

"  For  it  is  here  that  Fantasy  with  her  mystic  wonder-land  plays  into 
the  small  prose  domain  of  Sense,  and  becomes  incorporated  therewith. 
In  the  Symbol  proper,  what  we  can  call  a  Symbol,  there  is  ever,  more  or 
less  distinctly  and  directly,  some  embodyment  and  revelation  of  the  Infi- 
nite ;  the  Infinite  is  made  to  blend  itself  with  the  Finite,  to  stand  visible, 
and  as  it  were,  attainable  there.  By  Symbols,  accordingly,  is  man  guided 
and  commanded,  made  happy,  made  wretched.  He  everywhere  finds 
himself  encompassed  with  Symbols,  recognized  as  such  or  not  recognized  : 
the  Universe  is  but  one  vast  Symbol  of  God  ;  nay,  if  thou  wilt  have  it, 
what  is  man  himself  but  a  Symbol  of  God ;  is  not  all  that  he  does  symbo- 
lical ;  a  revelation  to  Sense  of  the  mystic  god-given  Force  that  is  m  him ; 
a  '  Gospel  of  Freedom,'  which  he,  the  «  Messias  of  Nature,'  preaches, 
as  he  can,  by  act  and  word  ?  Not  a  Hut  he  builds  but  is  the  visible  em- 
bodyment of  a  Thought ;  but  bears  visible  record  of  invisible  things  ;  but 
is,  in  the  transcendental  sense,  symbolical  as  well  as  real." 

"  Man,"  says  the  Professor  elsewhere,  in  quite  antipodal  contrast  with 
these  high-soaring  delineations,  which  we  have  here  cut  short  on  the 
verge  of  the  inane,  "  man  is  by  birth  somewhat  of  an  owl.  Perhaps  too 
of  all  the  owleries  that  ever  possessed  him,  the  most  owlish,  if  we  consi- 
der it,  is  that  of  your  actually  existing  Motive-Millwrights.  Fantastic] 
tricks  enough  has  man  played  in  his  time ;  has  fancied  himself  to  be  most 
tilings,  down  even  to  an  animated  heap  of  Glass  :  but  to  fancy  himself  a 
dead  Iron-Balance  for  weighing  Pains  and  Pleasures  on,  was  reserved  for  - 
this  his  latter  era.  There  stands  he,  his  Universe  one  huge  Manger, 
filled  with  hay  and  thistles  to  be  weighed  against  each  other ;  and  looks 
long-eared  enough.  Alas,  poor  devil !  spectres  are  appointed  to  haunt 
him  :  one  age,  he  is  hagridden,  bewitched ;  the  next,  priestridden,  befool-  j 
ed ;  in  all  ages,  bedevilled.  And  now  the  Genius  of  Mechanism  smothers 
him  worse  than  any  Nightmare  did  ;  till  the  Soul  is  nigh  choked  out  of 
him,  and  only  a  kind  of  Digestive,  Mechanic  life  remains.  In  Earth  and 
in  Heaven  he  can  see  nothing  but  Mechanism ;  has  fear  for  nothing  else, 
hope  in  nothing  else  :  the  world  would  indeed  grind  him  to  pieces ;  but 
cannot  he  fathom  the  Doctrine  of  Motives,  and  cunningly  compute  these, 
and  mechanize  them  to  grind  the  other  way  ? 

"  Were  he  not,  as  has  been  said,  purblinded  by  enchantment,  you  had 
9 


<>8 


SARTOR  RKSARTUS. 


but  to  bid  lain  open  his  eyes  and  look.  In  which  country,  in  which 
time,  was  it  hitherto  that  man's  history,  or  the  history  of  any  man,  went 
on  by  calculated  or  calculable  "  Motives  ?"  What  make  ye  of  your 
Christianities,  and  Chivalries,  and  Reformations,  and  Marseillaise  Hymns, 
and  Reigns  of  Terror  ?  Nay,  has  not  perhaps  the  Motive-grinder  him- 
self been  in  Love  !  Did  he  never  stand  so  much  as  a  contested  Election  .' 
Leave  him  to  Time,  and  the  medicating  virtue  of  Nature  ? 

u  Yes,  Friends,"  elsewhere  observes  the  Professor,  "  not  our  Logical, 
Mensurative  faculty,  but  our  Imaginative  one  is  Kins:  over  us;  I  might 
say,  Priest  and  Prophet  to  lead  us  heavenward;  or  Magician  and  Wizard 
to  lead  us  hell  ward.  Nay,  even  for  the  basest  Sensualist,  what  is  Sense 
but  the  implement  of  Fantasy;  the  vessel  it  drinks  out  of?  Ever  in  the 
dullest  existence,  there  is  a  sheen  either  of  Inspiration  or  of  Madness  (thou 
partly  hast  it  in  thy  choice,  which  of  the  two)  that  gleams  in  from  the 
circumambient  Eternity,  and  colors  with  its  own  hues  our  little  islet  of 
Time.  The  Understanding  is  indeed  thy  window,  too  clear  thou  canst 
not  make  it ;  but  Fantasy  is  thy  eye,  with  its  color-giving  retina,  healthy 
or  diseased.  Have  not  I  myself  known  five  hundred  living  soldiers 
sabred  into  crows'  meat,  for  a  piece  of  glazed  cotton,  which  they  called 
their  Flag ;  which,  had  you  sold  it  in  any  market-cross,  would  not  have 
brought  above  three  groschen  ?  Did  not  the  whole  Hungarian  Nation 
rise,  like  some  tumultuous  moon-stirred  Atlantic,  when  Kaiser  Joseph 
pocketed  their  Iron  Crown  :  an  implement,  as  was  sagaciously  observed, 
in  size  and  commercial  value,  little  differing  from  a  horse-shoe  ?  It  is  in 
and  through  Symbols  that  man,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  lives,  works, 
and  has  his  being :  those  ages,  moreover,  are  accounted  the  noblest 
which  can  the  best  recognize  symbolical  worth,  and  prize  it  the  highest. 
For  is  not  a  Symbol  ever,  to  him  who  has  eyes  for  it,  some  dimmer  or 
clearer  revelation  of  the  Godlike  ? 

"  Of  Symbols,  however,  I  remark  farther,  that  they  have  both  an  ex- 
trinsic and  intrinsic  value ;  oftenest  the  former  @nly.  What,  for  instance, 
was  in  that  clouted  Shoe,  which  the  Peasants  bore  aloft  with  them  as 
ensign  in  their  Bauemkrieg  (Peasants'  War)  ?  Or  in  the  Wallet-and- 
Staff  round  which  the  Netherland  Gueux,  glorying  in  that  nickname  of 
Beggars,  heroically  rallied  and  prevailed,  though  against  King  Philip 
himself?  Intrinsic  significance  these  had  none  :  only  extrinsic:  as  the 
accidental  Standards  of  multitudes  more  or  less  sacredly  uniting  together ; 
in  which  union  itself,  as  above  noted,  there  is  ever  something  mystical 
and  borrowing  of  the  Godlike.  Under  a  like  category,  too,  stand,  or 
stood,  the  stupidest  heraldic  Coats-of-arms ;  military  Banners  every- 
where ;  and  generally  all  national  or  other  sectarian  Costumes  and  Cus- 
toms ;  they  have  no  intrinsic,  necessary  divineness,  or  even  worth  ;  but 
have  acquired  an  extrinsic  one.  Nevertheless  through  all  these  there 
glimmers  something  of  a  Divine  Idea ;  as  through  military  Banners 
themselves,  the  Divine  Idea  of  Duty,  of  heroic  Daring;  in  some  instances 
of  Freedom,  of  Right.  Nay,  the  highest  ensign  that  man  ever  met  and 
embraced  under,  the  Cross  itself,  had  no  meaning  save  an  accidental  ex- 
trinsic one. 

"  Another  matter  it  is,  however,  when  your  Symbol  has  intrinsic  mean- 
ing, and  is  of  itself  fit  that  men  should  unite  round  it.  Let  but  the  God- 
like manifest  itself  to  Sense  ;  let  but  Eternity  look,  more  or  less  visibly, 
through  the  Time-Figure  (Zeitbild) !  Then  is  it  fit  that  men  unite  there  ; 
and  worship  together  before  such  Symbol ;  and  so  from  day  to  day,  and 
from  age  to  age,  superadd  to  it  new  divineness. 

"  Of  this  latter  sort  are  all  true  Works  of  Art :  in  them  (if  thou  know 
a  Work  of  Art  from  a  Daub  of  Artifice)  wilt  thou  discern  Eternity  look- 
ing through  Time  ;  the  Godlike  rendered  visible.    Here  too  may  a;n  ex- 


SYMBOLS. 


trinsic  value  gradually  superadd  itself:  thus  certain  Iliads,  and  the  like, 
have,  in  three  thousand  years,  attained  quite  new  significance.  But 
nobler  than  all  in  this  kind  are  the  Lives  of  heroic,  god-inspired  Men ; 
for  what  other  Work  of  Art  is  so  divine  ?  In  Death  too,  in  the  Death  of 
the  Just,  as  the  last  perfection  of  a  Work  of  Art,  may  we  not  discern 
symbolic  meaning  ?  In  that  divinely  transfigured  Sleep,  as  of  Victory, 
resting  over  the  beloved  face  which  now  knows  thee  no  more,  read  (if 
thou  canst  for  tears)  the  confluence  of  Time  with  Eternity,  and  some 
gleam  of  the  latter  peering  through. 

"  Highest  of  all  Symbols  are  those  wherein  the  Artist  or  Poet  has  risen 
into  Prophet,  and  all  men  can  recognize  a  present  God,  and  worship  the 
same :  I  mean  religious  Symbols.  Various  enough  have  been  such 
religious  Symbols,  what  we  call  Religions  ;  as  men  stood  in  this  stage  of  • 
culture  or  the  other,  and  could  worse  or  better  body  forth  the  Godlike : 
some  Symbols  with  a  transient  intrinsic  worth ;  many  with  only  an  ex- 
trinsic. If  thou  ask  to  what  height  man  has  carried  it  in  this  matter, 
look  on  our  divinest  Symbol :  on  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  his  Life,  and  his 
Biography,  and  what  followed  therefrom.  Higher  has  the  human 
Thought  not  yet  reached  :  this  is  Christianity  and  Christendom  ;  a 
Symbol  of  quite  perennial,  infinite  character  ;  whose  significance  will 
ever  demand  to  be  anew  inquired  into,  and  anew  made  manifest. 

"  But,  on  the  whole,  as  Time  adds  much  to  the  sacredness  of  Symbols, 
so  likewise  in  his  progress  he  at  length  defaces,  or  even  desecrates  them ; 
and  Symbols,  like  all  terrestrial  Garments,  wax  old.  Homer's  Epos  has 
not  ceased  to  be  true ;  yet  it  is  no  longer  our  Epos,  but  shines  in  the 
distance,  if  clearer  and  clearer,  yet  also  smaller  and  smaller,  a  receding 
Star.  It  needs  a  scientific  telescope,  it  needs  to  be  reinterpreted  and 
artificially  brought  near  us,  before  we  can  so  much  as  know  that  it  was 
a  Sun.  So  likewise  a  day  comes  when  the  Runic  Thor,  with  his  Eddas, 
must  withdraw  into  dimness;  and  many  an  African  Mumbo-Jumbo,  and 
Indian  Wau-Wau  be  utterly  abolished.  For  all  things,  even  Celestial 
Luminaries,  much  more  atmospheric  meteors,  have  their  rise,  their 
culmination,  their  decline." 

"  Small  is  this  which  thou  tellest  me  that  the  Royal  Sceptre  is  but  a 
piece  of  gilt-wood ;  that  the  Pyx  has  become  a  most  foolish  box,  and 
truly,  as  Ancient  Pistol  thought,  "  of  little  price."  Aright  Conjuror 
might  I  name  thee,  couldst  thou  conjure  back  into  these  wooden  tools  the 
divine  virtue  they  once  held." 

"  Of  this  thing  however  be  certain  :  wouldst  thou  plant  for  Eternity,  / 
then  plant  into  the  deep  infinite  iacukies  of  man,  his  Fantasy  and  Heart;  ;, 
wouldst  thou  plant  for  Year  and  Day,  then  plant  into  his  shallow 
superficial  faculties,  his  Self-love  and  Arithmetical  Understanding,  what 
will  grow  there.  A  Hierarch,  therefore,  and  Pontiff  of  the  World  will 
we  call  him,  the  Poet  and  inspired  Maker  ;  who,  Prometheus-like,  can 
shape  new  Symbols,  and  bring  new  Fire  from  Heaven  to  fix  it  there. 
Such  too  will  not  always  be  wanting  ;  neither  perhaps  now  are.  Mean 
while,  as  the  average  of  matters  goes,  we  account  him  Legislator  and 
wise  who  can  so  much  as  tell  when  a  Symbol  has  grown  old,  and  gently 
remove  it. 

When,  as  the  last  English  Coronation*  was  preparing,  concludes  this 
wonderful  Professor,  I  read  in  their  Newspapers  that  the  "  Champion  of 
England,"  he  who  must  offer  battle  to  the  Universe  for  his  new  King, 
had  brought  it  so  far  that  he  could  now  "  mount  his  horse  with  little 
assistance,"  I  said  to  myself:  Here  also  we  have  a  Symbol  well  nigh 
superannuated.    Alas,  move  whithersoever  you  may,  are  not  the  tatters 


*  That  of  George  IV.— Kd 


100 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


and  rags  of  superannuated  worn-out  Symbols  (in  this  Ragfair  of  a  World) 
dropping  off  everywhere,  to  hoodwink,  to  halter,  to  tether  you ;  nay,  if 
you  shake  them  not  aside,  threatening  to  accumulate,  and  perhaps  pro- 
duce suffocation." 


At  this  point  we  determine  on  adverting  shortly,  or  rather  reverting, 
to  a  certain  Tract  of  Hofrath  Heuschrecke's,  entitled  Institute  for  the 
Repression  of  Population  ;  which  lies,  dishonorably  enough  (with  torn 
leaves,  and  a  perceptible  smell  of  aloetic  drugs),  stuffed  into  the  Bag 
Pisces,  Not  indeed  for  the  sake  of  the  Tract  itself,  which  we  admirr 
little ;  but  of  the  marginal  Notes,  evidently  in  Teufelsdrockh's  hand, 
which  rather  copiously  fringe  it.  A  few  of  these  may  be  in  their  right 
place  here. 

Into  the  Hofrath's  Institute,  with  its  extraordinary  schemes,  and 
machinery  of  Corresponding  Boards  and  the  like,  we  shall  not  so  much 
as  glance.  Enough  for  us  to  understand  that  Heuschrecke  is  a  disciple 
of  Malthus  ;  and  so  zealous  for  the  doctrine,  that  his  zeal  almost  literally 
eats  him  up.  A  deadly  fear  of  Population  possesses  the  Hofrath;  some- 
thing like  a  fixed-idea;  undoubtedly  akin  to  the  more  diluted  forms  of 
Madness.  Nowhere,  in  that  quarter  of  his  intellectual  world,  is  there 
light ;  nothing  but  a  grim  shadow  of  Hunger ;  open  mouths  opening 
wider  and  wider ;  a  world  to  terminate  by  the  frightfullest  consumma- 
tion :  by  its  too  dense  inhabitants,  famished  into  delirium,  universally 
eating  one  another.  To  make  air  for  himself  in  which  strangulation, 
choking  enough  to  a  benevolent  heart,  the  Hofrath  founds,  or  proposes 
to  found,  this  Institute  of  his,  as  the  best  he  can  do.  It  is  only  with  our 
Professor's  comments  thereon  that  we  concern  ourselves. 

First,  then,  remark  that  Teufelsdrockh,  as  a  speculative  Radical,  has 
his  own  notions  about  human  dignity ;  that  the  Zahdarm  palaces  and 
courtesies  have  not  made  him  forgetful  of  the  Futteral  cottages.  On 
the  blank  cover  of  Heuschrecke's  Tract,  we  find  the  following  indis- 
tinctly engrossed : 

"  Two  men  I  honor,  and  no  third.  First,  the  toilworn  Craftsman 
that  with  earth-made  Implement  laboriously  conquers  the  Earth,  and 
makes  her  man's.  Venerable  to  me  is  the  hard  Hand;  crooked,  coarse; 
wherein  notwithstanding  lies  a  cunning  virtue,  indefeasibly  royal,  as  of 
the  Sceptre  of  this  Planet.  Venerable  too  is  the  rugged  face,  all  weather- 
tanned,  besoiled,  with  its  rude  intelligence  ;  for  it  is  the  face  of  a  Man 
living  manlike.  Oh,  but  the  more  venerable  for  thy  rudeness,  and  even 
because  we  must  pity  as  well  as  love  thee  !  Hardly-entreated  Brother  ! 
For  us  was  thy  back  so  bent,  for  us  were  thy  straight  limbs  and  fingers 
so  deformed  :  thou  wert  our  Conscript,  on  whom  the  lot  fell,  and  fighting 
our  battles  wert  so  marred.  For  in  thee  too  lay  a  god-created  Form,  but 
it  was  not  to  be  unfolded ;  encrusted  must  it  stand  with  the  thick 
adhesions  and  defacements  of  Labor ;  and  thy  body  like  thy  soul  was 
not  to  know  freedom.  Yet  toil  on,  toil  on  :  thou  art  in  thy  duty,  be  out 
of  it  who  may ;  thou  toilest  for  the  altogether  indispensable,  for  daily 
bread. 

"  A  second  man  I  honor,  and  still  more  highly :  Him  who  is  seen 
/  toiling  for  the  spiritually  indispensable  ;  not  daily  bread,  but  the  Bread  of 


|  Life.    Is  not  he  too  in  his  duty  ;  endeavoring  towards  inward  Harmony ; 
revealing  this,  by  act  or  by  word,  through  all  his  outward  endeavors,  be 


CHAPTER  IV. 


HELOTAGE. 


HELOTAGE. 


101 


they  high  or  low  ?  Highest  of  all,  when  his  outward  and  his  inward 
endeavor  are  one  :  when  we  can  name  him  Artist ;  not  earthly  Crafts- 
man only,  but  inspired  Thinker,  that  with  heaven-made  Implement  con- 
quers Heaven  for  us  !  If  the  poor  and  humble  toil  that  we  have  Food, 
must  not  the  high  and  glorious  toil  for  him  in  return,  that  he  have  Light, 
have  Guidance,  Freedom,  Immortality  ? — These  two,  in  all  their  degrees, 
I  honor :  all  else  is  chaff  and  dust,  which  let  the  wind  blow  whither  it 
listeth. 

"  Unspeakably  touching  is  it,  however,  when  I  find  both  dignities 
united;  and  he  that  must  toil  outwardly  for  the  lowest  of  man's  wants,  is 
also  toiling  inwardly  for  the  highest.  Sublimer  in  this  world  know  I  no- 
thing than  a  Peasant  Saint,  could  such  now  anywhere  be  met  with. 
Such  a  one  will  take  thee  back  to  Nazareth  itself;  thou  wilt  see  the 
splendor  of  Heaven  spring  forth  from  the  humblest  depths  of  Earth,  like 
a  light  shining  in  great  darkness." 

And  again  :  "  It  is  not  because  of  his  toils  that  I  lament  for  the  poor : 
we  must  all  toil,  or  steal  (howsoever  we  name  our  stealing),  which  is 
worse ;  no  faithful  workman  finds  his  task  a  pastime.  The  poor  is 
hungry  and  athirst,  but  for  him  also  there  is  food  and  drink  :  he  is 
heavy-laden  and  weary ;  but  for  him  also  the  Heavens  send  Sleep,  and  of 
the  deepest ;  in  his  smoky  cribs,  a  clear  dewy  heaven  of  Rest  envelopes 
him,  and  fitful  glitterings  of  cloud-skirted  Dreams.  But  what  I  do  mourn 
over  is  that  the  lamp  of  his  soul  should  go  out ;  that  no  ray  of  heavenly, 
or  even  of  earthly  knowledge,  should  visit  him  ;  but,  only  in  the  haggard 
darkness,  like  two  spectres,  Fear  and  Indignation.  Alas,  while  the  Body 
stands  so  broad  and  brawny,  must  the  Soul  lie  blinded,  dwarfed,  stupified, 
almost  annihilated !  Alas,  was  this  too  a  Breath  of  God  :  bestowed  in 
Heaven,  but  on  earth  never  to  be  unfolded  ! — That  there  should  one 
Man  die  Ignorant  who  had  capacity  for  Knowledge,  this  I  call  a  tragedy, 
were  it  to  happen  more  than  twenty  times  in  the  minute,  as  by  some 
computations  it  does.  The  miserable  fraction  of  Science  which  united 
mankind  in  a  wide  Universe  of  Nescience,  has  acquired,  why  is  not  this, 
with  all  diligence,  imparted  to  all  Vs 

Quite  in  an  opposite  strain  is  the  following  :  "  The  old  Spartans  had  a 
wiser  method  ;  and  went  out  and  hunted  down  their  Helots,  and  speared 
and  spitted  them,  when  they  grew  too  numerous.  With  our  improved 
fashions  of  hunting,  Herr  Hofrath,  now  after  the  invention  of  fire-arms, 
and  standing  armies,  how  much  easier  were  such  a  hunt !  Perhaps  in 
the  most  thickly-peopled  country,  some  three  days  annually  might  suffice 
to  shoot  all  the  able-bodied  Paupers  that  had  accumulated  within  the 
year.  Let  Governments  think  of  this.  The  expense  were  trifling  :  nay, 
the  very  carcasses  would  pay  it.  Have  them  salted  and  barrelled  ;  could 
not  you  victual  therewith,  if  not  Army  and  Navy,  yet  richly  such  infirm 
Paupers,  in  work-houses  and  elsewhere,  as  enlightened  Charity,  dreading 
no  evil  of  them,  might  see  good  to  keep  alive  ?" 

"  And  yet,"  writes  he  farther  on,  "  there  must  be  something  wrong. 
A  full-formed  Horse  will,  in  any  market,  bring  from  twenty  to  as  high  as 
two  hundred  Friedrichs  d'or :  such  is  his  worth  to  the  world.  A  full- 
formed  Man  is  not  only  worth  nothing  to  the  world,  but  the  world  could 
afford  him  a  round  sum  would  he  simply  engage  to  go  and  hang  himself. 
Nevertheless,  which  of  the  two  was  the  more  cunningly-devised  article, 
even  as  an  Engine  ?  Good  Heavens  !  A  white  European  Man,  standing 
on  his  two  Legs,  with  his  two  five-fingered  Hands  at  his  shackle-bones, 
and  miraculous  Head  on  his  shoulders,  is  worth,  I  should  say,  from  fifty  [ 
to  a  hundred  Horses  !" 

"True,  thou  Gold-Hofrath,"  cries  the  Professor  elsewhere:  "too 
crowded  indeed !    Meanwhile,  what  portion  of  this  inconsiderable 
9* 


102 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


terraqueous  Globe  have  ye  actually  tilled  and  delved,  till  it  will  grow  no 
more  ?  How  thick  stands  your  Population  in  the  Pampas  and  Savannas 
of  America;  round  ancient  Carthage,  and  in  the  interior  of  Africa;  on 
both  slopes  of  the  Altaic  chain,  in  the  central  Platform  of  Asia  ;  in  Spain, 
Greece,  Turkey,  Crim  Tartary,  the  Curragh  of  Kildare  ?  One  man,  in 
one  year,  as  I  have  understood  it,  if  you  lend  him  Earth,  will  feed  him- 
self and  nine  others.  Alas,  where  now  are  the  Hengsts  and  Alarics  of 
our  still  glowing,  still  expanding  Europe ;  who,  when  their  home  is  grown 
too  narrow,  will  enlist  and,  like  Firepillars,  guide  onwards  those  super- 
fluous masses  of  indomitable  living  Valour ;  equipped,  not  now  with  the 
battle-axe  and  war-chariot,  but  with  the  steam-engine  and  ploughshare  ? 
— Where  are  they  ? — Preserving  their  Game  !" 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  PHCENIX. 

Putting  which  four  singular  Chapters  together,  and  alongside  of  them 
numerous  hints,  and  even  direct  utterances,  scattered  over  these  Writings 
of  his,  we  come  upon  the  startling  yet  not  quite  unlooked-for  conclusion, 
that  Teufelsdrockh  is  one  of  those  who  consider  Society,  properly  so 
called,  to  be  as  good  as  extinct ;  and  that  only  the  Gregarious  feelings, 
and  old  inherited  habitudes,  at  this  juncture,  hold  us  from  Dispersion, 
and  universal  national,  civil,  domestic  and  personal  war  !  He  says  ex- 
pressly :  "  For  the  last  three  centuries,  above  all,  for  the  last  three 
quarters  of  a  century,  that  same  Peri-cardial  Nervous  Tissue  (as  we 
named  it)  of  Religion,  where  lies  the  Life-essence  of  Society,  has  been 
smote  at  arid  perforated,  needfully  and  needlessly ;  till  now  it  is  quite 
rent  into  shreds ;  and  Society,  long  pining,  diabetic,  consumptive,  can  be 
regarded  as  defunct ;  for  those  spasmodic,  galvanic  sprawlings  are  not 
life  ;  neither  indeed  will  they  endure,  galvanise  as  you  may,  beyond  two 
days." 

"  Call  ye  that  a  Society,"  cries  he  again,  "  where  there  is  no  longer 
any  Social  Idea  extant;  not  so  much  as  the  Idea  of  a  common  Home,  but 
only  of  a  common,  over-crowded  Lodging-house  ?  Where  each,  isolat- 
ed, regardless  of  his  neighbor,  turned  against  his  neighbor,  clutches 
what  he  can  get,  and  cries  '  Mine  !'  and  calls  it  Peace,  because,  in  the 
cut- purse  and  cut-throat  Scramble,  no  steel  knives,  but  only  a  far  cun- 
ninger  sort,  can  be  employed  ?  Where  Friendship,  Communion,  has 
become  an  incredible  tradition  ;  and  your  holiest  Sacramental  Supper  is 
a  smoking  Tavern  Dinner,  with  Cook  for  Evangelist  ?  Where  your 
Priest  has  no  tongue  but  for  plate-licking :  and  your  high  Guides  and 
Governors  cannot  guide  ;  but  on  all  hands  hear  it  passionately  proclaim- 
med  :  Laissez  /aire ;  Leave  us  alone  of  your  guidance,  such  light  is  darker 
than  darkness ;  eat  your  wages,  and  sleep  ! 

"  Thus,  too,"  continues  he,  "  must  an  observant  eye  discern  every- 
where that  saddest  spectacle  :  The  Poor  perishing,  like  neglected,  foun- 
dered Draught-Cattle,  of  Hunger  and  Overwork  ;  the  Rich,  still  more 
wretchedly,  of  Idleness,  Satiety,  and  Overgrowth.  The  Highest  in  rank, 
at  length,  without  honor  from  the  Lowest ;  scarcely,  with  a  little  mouth- 
honor,  as  from  tavern-waiters  who  expect  to  put  it  in  the  bill.  Once 
sacred  Symbols  fluttering  as  empty  Pageants,  whereof  men  grudge  even 
the  expense ;  a  world  becoming  dismantled  in  one  word,  the  Church 
fallen  speechless,  from  obesity  and  apoplexy ;  the  State  shrunk  into  a 
Police- Office,  straitened  to  get  its  pay  !" 

We  might  ask,  are  there  many  "  observant  eyes,"  belonging  to  Practical 

/ 


TITF.  PITfENTX. 


men,  in  England  or  elsewhere,  which  have  descried  these  phenomena  ; 
or  is  it  only  from  the  mystic  elevation  of  a  German  Wahngasse  that  such 
wonders  are  visible  ?  Teufelsdrockh  contends  that  the  aspect  of  a 
"  deceased  or  expiring  Society,"  fronts  us  everywhere,  so  that  whoso  runs 
may  read.  "  What,  for  example,"  says  he,  "  is  the  universally-arrogated 
Virtue,  almost  the  so1^  remaining  Catholic  Virtue,  of  these  days  ?  For 
some  half  century,  it  has  been  the  thing  you  name,  ' Independence.' 
Suspicion  of  '  Servility,'  of  reverence  for  Superiors  the  very  dogleech  is 
anxious  to  disavow.  Fools  !  Were  your  Superiors  worthy  to  govern, 
and  you  worthy  to  obey,  reverence  for  them  were  even  your  only  possible 
freedom.  Independence,  in  all  kinds,  is  rebellion  ;  if  unjust  rebellion, 
why  parade  it  and  everywhere  prescribe  it  ?" 

But  what  then  ?  Are  we  returning,  as  Rousseau  prayed,  to  the  state 
of  Nature  ?  "  The  Soul  Politic  having  departed,"  says  Teufelsdrockh, 
"  what  can  follow  but  that  the  Body  Politic  be  decently  interred,  to  avoid 
putrescence  ?  Liberals,  Economists,  Utilitarians  enough  I  see  marching 
with  its  bier,  and  chanting  loud  pseans,  towards  the  funeral-pile,  where, 
amid  wailings  from  some,  and  saturnalian  revelries  from  the  most,  the 
venerable  Corpse  is  to  be  burnt.  Or,  in  plain  words,  that  these  men, 
Liberals,  Utilitarians,  or  whatsoever  they  are  called,  will  ultimately  carry 
their  point,  and  dissever  and  destroy  most  existing  Institutions  of  Society, 
seems  a  thing  which  has  some  time  ago  ceased  to  be  doubtful. 

"  Do  we  not  see  a  little  subdivision  of  the  grand  Utilitarian  Armament 
come  to  light  even  in  insulated  England  ?  A  living  nucleus,  that  will 
attract  and  grow,  does  at  length  appear  there  also ;  and  under  curious 
phasis ;  properly  as  the  inconsiderable  fag-end,  and  so  far  in  the  rear  of 
the  others  as  to  fancy  itself  the  van.  Our  European  Mechanizers  are  a. 
sect  of  boundless  diffusion,  activity,  and  co-operative  spirit :  has  not  Utili- 
tarianism nourished  in  high  places  of  Thought,  here  among  ourselves,  and 
in  every  European  country,  at  some  time  or  other,  within  the  last  fifty 
years  ?  If  now  in  all  countries,  except  perhaps  England,  it  has  ceased 
to  flourish,  or  indeed  to  exist,  among  Thinkers,  and  sunk  to  Journalists 
and  the  popular  mass, — who  sees  not  that,  as  hereby  it  no  longer  preach- 
es, so  the  reason  is,  it  now  needs  no  preaching,  but  is  in  full  universal 
Action,  the  doctrine  everywhere  known  and  enthusiastically  laid  to 
heart?  The  fit  pabulum,  in  these  times,  for  a  certain  rugged  workshop- 
intellect  and  heart,  nowise  without  their  corresponding  workshop-strength 
and  ferocity,  it  requires  but  to  be  stated  in  such  scenes  to  make  prose- 
lytes enough. — Admirably  calculated  for  destroying,  only  not  for  rebuild- 
ing !  It  spreads  like  a  sort  of  Dog-madness  ;  till  the  whole  World-ken- 
nel will  be  rabid :  then  wo  to  the  Huntsmen,  with  or  without  their 
whips  !  They  should  have  given  the  quadrupeds  water,"  adds  he,  "  the 
water,  namely,  of  Knowledge  and  of  Life,  while  it  was  yet  time." 

Thus,  if  Professor  Teufelsdrockh  can  be  relied  on,  we  are  at  this  hour 
in  a  most  critical  condition ;  beleaguered  by  that  boundless  "  Armament 
of  Mechanizers"  and  Unbelievers,  threatening  to  strip  us  bare  !  e<  The 
World,"  says  he,  "  as  it  needs  must,  is  under  a  process  of  devastation  and 
waste,  which,  whether  by  silent  assiduous  corrosion,  or  open  quicker 
combustion,  as  the  case  chances,  will  effectually  enough  annihilate  the 
past  Forms  of  Society  ;  replace  them  with  what  it  may.  For  the  present, 
it  is  contemplated  that  when  man's  whole  Spiritual  Interests  are  once 
divested,  these  innumerable  stript-off  Garments  shall  mostly  be  burnt, 
but  the  sounder  Rags  among  them  be  quilted  together  into  one  huge  Irish 
watch-coat  for  the  defence  of  the  Body  only  !" — This,  we  think,  is  but 
Job's  news  to  the  humane  reader. 

"  Nevertheless,"  cries  Teufelsdrockh,  "  who  can  hinder  it ;  who  is 
there  that  can  clutch  into  the  wheel-spokes  of  Destiny,  and  say  to  the 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


Spirit  of  the  Time  :  Turn  back,  I  command  thee  ? — Wiser  were  it  that  we 
yielded  to  the  Inevitable  and  Inexorable,  and  accounted  even  this  the  best." 

Nay,  might  not  an  attentive  Editor,  drawing  his  own  inferences  from 
what  stands  written,  conjecture  that  Teufelsdrockh,  individually,  had 
yielded  to  this  same  "  Inevitable  and  Inexorable"  heartily  enough  ;  and 
now  sat  waiting  the  issue,  with  his  natural  diabolico-angelical  Indiffer- 
ence, if  not  even  Placidity  ?  Did  we  not  hear  him  complain  that  the 
World  was  a  "  huge  Ragfair,"  and  the  "  rags  and  tatters  of  old  Symbols" 
were  raining  down  everywhere,  like  to  drift  him  in,  and  suffocate  him  ? 
What  with  those  "  unhunted  Helots"  of  his  ;  and  the  uneven  sic-vos-non- 
vobis  pressure,  and  hard  crashing  collision  he  is  pleased  to  discern  in  ex- 
isting things  ;  what  with  the  so  hateful  "  empty  Masks,"  full  of  beetles 
and  spiders,  yet  glaring  out  on  him,  from  their  glass-eyes,  "  with  a  ghastly 
affectation  of  life," — we  feel  entitled  to  conclude  him  even  willing  that 
much  should  be  thrown  to  the  Devil,  so  it  were  but  done  gently  !  Safe 
himself  in  that  "  Pinnacle  of  Weissnichtwo,"  he  would  consent,  with  a 
tragic  solemnity,  that  the  monster  UTILITARIA,  held  back,  indeed,  and 
moderated  by  nose-rings,  halters,  foot-shackles,  and  every  conceivable 
modification  of  rope,  should  go  forth  to  do  her  work  ; — to  tread  down  old 
ruinous  Palaces  and  Temples,  with  her  broad  hoof,  till  the  whole  were 
trodden  down,  that  new  and  better  might  be  built !  Remarkable  in  this 
point  of  view  are  the  following  sentences. 

"  Society,"  says  he,  "  is  not  dead  :  that  Carcass,  which  you  called  dead 
Society,  is  but  her  mortal  coil  which  she  has  shuffled  off,  to  assume  a 
nobler  ;  she  herself,  through  perpetual  metamorphoses,  in  fairer  and  fairer 
development,  has  to  live  till  Time  also  merge  in  Eternity.  Whereso- 
ever two  or  three  Living  Men  are  gathered  together,  there  is  Society ;  or 
there  it  will  be,  with  its  cunning  mechanisms  ;  and  stupendous  structures, 
overspreading  this  little  Globe,  and  reaching  upwards  to  Heaven  and 
downwards  to  Gehenna :  for  always,  under  one  or  the  other  figure,  it  has 
two  authentic  Revelations,  of  a  God  and  of  a  Devil ;  the  Pulpit,  namely, 
and  the  Gallows." 

Indeed,  we  already  heard  him  speak  of  "  Religion,  in  unnoticed  nooks, 
weaving  for  herself  new  Vestures;" — Teufelsdrockh  himself  being  one 
of  the  loom-treadles  ?  Elsewhere  he  quotes  without  censure  that  strange 
aphorism  of  Saint-Simon's,  concerning  which  and  whom  so  much  were  to 
be  said  :  "  L'age  d'or  qu'une  aveugle  tradition  a  place  jusqu'ici  dans  le 
passe  est  devant  nous ;  The  golden  age  which  a  blind  tradition  has 
hitherto  placed  in  the  Past  is  Before  us." — But  listen  again  : 

"  When  the  Phoenix  is  fanning  her  funeral  pyre,  will  there  not  be 
sparks  flying  ?  Alas,  some  millions  of  men,  and  among  them  such  as  a 
Napoleon,  have  already  been  licked  into  that  high- eddying  Flame,  and 
like  moths,  consumed  there.  Still  also  have  we  to  fear  that  incautious 
beards  will  get  singed. 

"  For  the  rest,  in  what  year  of  grace  such  Phoenix-cremation  will  be 
completed,  you  need  not  ask.  The  law  of  Perseverance  is  among  the 
deepest  in  man  :  by  nature  he  hates  change  ;  seldom  will  he  quit  his  old 
house  till  it  has  actually  fallen  about  his  ears.  Thus  have  I  seen  Solem- 
nities linger  as  Ceremonies,  sacred  Symbols  as  idle  Pageants,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  three  hundred  years  and  more  after  all  life  and  sacredness  had 
evaporated  out  of  them.  And  then,  finally,  what  time  the  Phoenix  Death- 
Birth  itself  will  require,  depends  on  unseen  contingencies. — Meanwhile, 
would  Destiny  offer  Mankind  that  after,  say  two  centuries  of  con\ulsion 
and  conflagration,  more  or  less  vivid,  the  fire-creation  should  be  accom- 
plished, and  we  find  ourselves  again  in  a  Living  Society,  and  no  longer 
fighting  but  working, — were  it  not  perhaps  prudent  in  Mankind  to  strike 
the  bargain  ?" 

/ 


OLD  CLOTHES. 


105 


Thus  is  Teufelsdrockh  content  that  old  sick  Society  should  be  deliber- 
ately burnt  (alas  !  with  quite  other  fuel  than  spice-wood)  :  in  the  faith 
that  she  is  a  Phoenix  ;  and  that  a  new  heavenborn  young  one  will  rise 
out  of  her  ashes  !  We  ourselves,  restricted  to  the  duty  of  Indicator,  shall 
forbear  commentary.  Meanwhile,  will  not  the  judicious  reader  shake  his 
head,  and  reproachfully,  yet  more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger,  say  or  think  : 
From  a  Doctor  Utriusque  Juris,  titular  Professor  in  a  University,  and 
man  to  whom  hitherto,  for  his  services,  Society,  bad  as  she  is,  has  given 
not  only  food  and  raiment  (of  a  kind)  but  books,  tobacco  and  gukguk,  we 
expected  more  gratitude  to  his  benefactress  ;  and  less  of  a  blind  Trust  in 
the  future,  which  resembles  that  rather  of  a  philosophical  Fatalist  and 
Enthusiast,  than  of  a  solid  householder  paying  scot  and  lot  in  a  Christian 
country.  ' 


CHAPTER  VI. 

OLD  CLOTHES. 

As  mentioned  above,  Teufelsdrockh,  though  a  Sansculottist,  is  in 
practice  probably  the  politest  man  extant :  his  whole  heart  and  life  are 
penetrated  and  informed  with  the  spirit  of  Politeness ;  a  noble  natural 
Courtesy  shines  through  him,  beautifying  his  vagaries ;  like  sun-light, 
making  a  rosy-fingered,  rainbow-dyed  Aurora  out  of  mere  aqueous 
clouds ;  nay,  brightening  London  smoke  itself  into  gold  vapor,  as  from 
the  crucible  of  an  alchemist.  Hear  in  what  earnest  though  fantastic 
wise  he  expresses  himself  on  this  head  : 

"  Shall  Courtesy  be  done  only  to  the  rich,  and  only  by  the  rich  ?  In 
Good-breeding,  which  differs,  if  at  all,  from  High-breeding,  only  as  it 
gracefully  remembers  the  rights  of  others,  rather  than  gracefully  insists 
on  its  own  rights,  I  discern  no  special  connection  with  wealth  and  birth  : 
but  rather  that  it  lies  in  human  nature  itself,  and  is  due  from  all  men 
towards  all  men.  Of  a  truth,  were  your  Schoolmaster  at  his  post,  and 
worth  anything  when  there,  this,  with  so  much  else,  would  be  reformed. 
Nay,  each  man  were  then  also  his  neighbor's  schoolmaster ;  till  at 
length  a  rude-visaged,  unmannered  Peasant  could  no  more  be  met  with, 
than  a  Peasant  unacquainted  with  botanical  Physiology,  or  who  felt  not 
that  the  clod  he  broke  was  created  in  Heaven. 

"  For  whether  thou  bear  a  sceptre  or  a  sledge-hammer,  art  thou  not 
alive  ;  is  not  this  thy  brother  alive  ?  *  There  is  but  one  Temple  in  the 
world,'  says  Novalis,  J  and  that  Temple  is  the  Body  of  Man.  Nothing 
is  holier  than  this  high  Form.  Bending  before  man  is  a  reverence  done 
to  this  Revelation  in  the  Flesh.  We  touch  Heaven,  when  we  lay  our 
hands  on  a  human  Body.' 

"  On  which  ground  I  would  fain  carry  it  farther  than  most  do  ;  and 
whereas  the  English  Johnson  only  bowed  to  every  Clergyman,  or  man 
with  a  shovel-hat,  I  would  bow  to  every  Man  with  any  sort  of  a  hat,  or 
with  no  hat  whatever.  Is  he  not  a  Temple,  then ;  the  visible  Mani- 
festation and  Impersonation  of  the  Divinity  ?  And  yet,  alas,  such 
indiscriminate  bowing  serves  not.  For  there  is  a  Devil  dwells  in  man, 
as  well  as  a  Divinity  ;  and  too  often  the  bow  is  but  pocketed  by  the  /or- 
mer.  It  would  go  to  the  pocket  of  Vanity  (which  is  your  clearest  phasis 
of  the  Devil,  in  these  times) ;  therefore  must  we  withhold  it. 

"  The  gladder  am  I,  on  the  other  hand,  to  do  reverence  to  those  Shells 
and  outer  Husks  of  the  Body,  wherein  no  devilish  passion  any  longer 
lodges,  but  only  the  pure  emblem  and  effigies  of  Man :  I  mean,  to  Empty, 
or  even  to  Cast  Clothes.    Nay,  is  it  not  to  Clothes  that  most  men  do 


100 


.SARTOR  RESAUTUS. 


reverence :  to  the  fine  frogged  broadcloth,  nowise  to  the  '  straddling 
animal  with  bandy  legs'  which  it  holds,  and  makes  a  Dignitary  of? 
Who  ever  saw  any  Lord  my-lorded  in  tattered  blanket,  fastened  with  a 
wooden  skewer  ?  Nevertheless,  I  say,  there  is  in  such  worship  a  shade 
of  hypocrisy,  a  practical  deception  :  for  how  often  does  the  Body  appro- 
priate what  was  meant  for  the  Cloth  only  !  Whoso  would  avoid  False- 
hood, which  is  the  essence  of  all  Sin,  will  perhaps  see  good  to  take  a 
different  course.  That  reverence  which  cannot  act  without  obstruction 
and  perversion  when  the  Clothes  are  full,  may  have  free  course  when 
they  are  empty.  Even  as,  for  Hindoo  Worshippers,  the  Pagoda  is  not 
less  sacred  than  the  God ;  so  do  I  too  worship  the  hollow  cloth  Garment 
with  equal  fervor,  as  when  it  contained  the  Man  :  nay,  with  more,  for 
I  now  fear  no  deception,  of  myself  or  of  others. 

"  Did  not  King  Toomtabard,  or,  in  other  words,  John  Balliol,  reign 
long  over  Scotland ;  the  man  John  Balliol  being  quite  gone,  and  only 
the  '  Toom  Tabard'  (Empty  Gown)  remaining  ?  What  still  dignity 
dwells  in  a  suit  of  Cast  Clothes  !  How  meekly  it  bears  its  honors  !  No 
haughty  looks,  no  scornful  gesture;  silent  and  serene,  it  fronts  the 
world  ;  neither  demanding  worship,  nor  afraid  to  miss  it.  The  Hat  still 
carries  the  physiognomy  of  its  Head :  but  the  vanity  and  the  stupidity, 
and  goose-speech  which  was  the  sign  of  these  two,  are  gone.  The  Coat- 
arm  is  stretched  out,  but  not  to  strike ;  the  Breeches,  in  modest  simplicity, 
depend  at  ease,  and  now  at  last  have  a  graceful  flow ;  the  Waistcoat, 
hides  no  evil  passion,  no  riotous  desire  ;  hunger  or  thirst  now  dwells  not 
in  it.  Thus  all  is  purged  from  the  grossness  of  sense,  from  the  carking 
cares  and  foul  vices  of  the  World  ;  and  rides  there,  on  its  Clothes- 
horse  ;  as,  on  a  Pegasus,  might  some  skyey  Messenger,  or  purified 
Apparition,  visiting  our  low  Earth. 

"  Often,  while  I  sojourned  in  that  monstrous  Tuberosity  of  Civilized 
Life,  the  Capital  of  England ;  and  meditated,  and  questioned  Destiny, 
under  the  ink-sea  of  vapor,  black,  thick,  and  multifarious  as  Spartan 
broth  ;  and  was  one  lone  Soul  amid  those  grinding  millions ; — often  have 
I  turned  into  their  Old-Clothes  Market  to  worship.  With  awe-struck 
heart  I  walked  through  that  Monmouth  Street,  with  its  empty  Suits,  as 
through  a  Sanhedrim  of  stainless  Ghosts.  Silent  are  they,  but  expressive 
in  their  silence  :  the  past  witnesses  and  instruments  of  Woe  and  Joy,  of 
Passions,  Virtues,  Crimes,  and  all  the  fathomless  tumult  of  Good  and 
Evil  in  <  the  Prison  called  Life.'  Friends  !  trust  not  the  heart  of  that 
man  for  whom  Old  Clothes  are  not  venerable.  Watch  too,  with  rever- 
ence, that  bearded  Jewish  Highpriest,  who  with  hoarse  voice,  like  some 
Angel  of  Doom,  summons  them  from  the  four  winds  !  On  his  head,  like 
the  Pope,  he  has  three  Hats, — a  real  triple  tiara ;  on  either  hand,  are  the 
similitude  of  Wings,  whereon  the  summoned  Garments  come  to  alight ; 
and  ever,  as  he  slowly  cleaves  the  air,  sounds  forth  his  deep  fateful  note, 
as  if  through  a  trumpet  he  were  proclaiming  :  <  Ghosts  of  Life,  come  to 
Judgment !'  Reck  not,  ye  fluttering  Ghosts  :  he  will  purify  you  in  his 
Purgatory,  with  fire  and  with  water  ;  and,  one  day,  new-created  ye  shall 
reappear.  Oh  !  let  him  in  whom  the  flame  of  Devotion  is  ready  to  go 
out,  who  has  never  worshipped,  and  knows  not  what  to  worship,  pace 
and  repace,  with  austerest  thought,  the  pavement  of  Monmouth  Street, 
and  say  whether  his  heart  and  his  eyes  still  continue  dry.  If  Field  Lane, 
with  its  long  fluttering  rows  of  yellow  handkerchiefs,  be  a  Dionysius' 
Ear,  where,  in  stifled  jarring  hubbub,  we  hear  the  Indictment  which 
Poverty  and  Vice  bring  against  lazy  Wealth,  that  it  has  left  them  there 
cast  out  and  trodden  under  foot  of  Want,  Darkness,  and  the  Devil, — then 
is  Monmouth  Street  a  Mirza's  Hill,  where,  in  motley  vision,  the  whole 
Pageant  of  existence  passes  awfully  before  us  ;  with  its  wail  and  jybilee, 


ORGANIC  FILAMENTS. 


107 


mad  loves  and  mad  hatreds,  church-bells  and  gallows-iopes,  farce- 
tragedy,  beast-godhood, — the  Bedlam  of  Creation  !" 

To  most  men,  as  it  does  to  ourselves,  all  this  will  seem  overcharged. 
We  too  have  walked  through  Monmouth  Street ;  but  with  little  feeling  of 
"  Devotion :"  probably  in  part  because  the  contemplative  process  is  so 
fatally  broken  in  upon  by  the  brood  of  money-changers,  who  nestle  in 
that  Church,  and  importune  the  worshipper  with  merely  secular  proposals. 
Whereas  Teufelsdrockh  might  be  in  that  happy  middle-state,  which 
leaves  to  the  Clothes-broker  no  hope  either  of  sale  or  of  purchase,  and 
so  be  allowed  to  linger  there  without  molestation. — Something  we  would 
have  given  to  see  the  little  philosophical  Figure,  with  its  steeple-hat  and 
loose  flowing  skirts,  and  eyes  in  a  tine  frenzy,  "  pacing  and  repacing  in 
austerest  thought"  that  foolish  Street ;  which  to  him  was  a  true  Delphic 
avenue,  and  supernatural  Whispering-gallery,  where  the  "  Ghosts  of 
Life"  rounded  strange  secrets  in  his  ear.  0  thou  philosophic  Teufels- 
drockh, that,  listenest  while  others  only  gabble,  and  with  thy  quick 
tympanum  hearest  the  grass  grow ! 

At  the  same  time,  is  it  not  strange  that,  in  Paperbag  Documents 
destined  for  an  English  Work,  there  exists  nothing  like  an  authentic 
diary  of  this  his  sojourn  in  London  ;  and  of  his  Meditations  among  the 
Clothes-shops  only  the  obscurest  emblematic  shadows  ?  Neither,  in 
conversation  (for,  indeed,  he  was  not  a  man  to  pester  you  with  his  Travels), 
have  we  heard  him  more  than  allude  to  the  subject. 

For  the  rest,  however,  it  cannot  be  uninteresting  that  we  here  find 
how  early  the  significance  of  Clothes  had  dawned  on  the  now  so  dis- 
tinguished Clothes-Professor.  Might  we  but  fancy  it  to  have  been 
even  in  Monmouth  Street,  at  the  bottom  of  our  own  English  "  ink-sea," 
that  this  remarkable  Volume  first  took  being,  and  shot  forth  its  salient 
point  in  his  soul, — as  in  Chaos  did  the  Egg  of  Eros,  one  day  to  be 
hatched  into  a  Universe  ! 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ORGANIC  FILAMENTS. 

For  us,  who  happen  to  live  while  the  World-Phcenix  is  burning  him- 
self, and  burning  so  slowly  that,  as  Teufelsdrockh  calculates,  it  were  a 
handsome  bargain  would  she  engage  to  have  done  "  within  two  centuries," 
there  seems  to  lie  but  an  ashy  prospect.  Not  altogether  so,  how- 
ever does  the  Professor  figure  it.  "In  the  living  subject,"  says  he, 
"  change  is  wont  to  be  gradual :  thus,  while  the  serpent  sheds  its  old 
skin,  the  new  is  already  formed  beneath.  Little  knowest  thou  of  the 
burning  of  a  World-Phoenix,  who  fanciest  that  she  must  first  burn  out, 
and  lie  as  a  dead  cinereous  heap ;  and  therefrom  the  young  one  start  up 
by  miracle,  and  fly  heavenward.  Far  otherwise  !  In  that  Fire-whirl- 
wind, Creation  and  Destruction  proceed  together  ;  ever  as  the  ashes  of 
the  Old  are  blown  about,  do  organic  filaments  of  the  New  mysteriously 
spin  themselves  :  and  amid  the  rushing  and  the  waving  of  the  Whirlwind- 
Element,  come  tones  of  a  melodious  Deathsong,  which  end  not  but  in 
tones  of  a  more  melodious  Birthsong.  Nay,  look  into  the  Fire-whirl- 
wind  with  thy  own  eyes,  and  thou  wilt  see."  Let  us  actually  look,  then  : 
to  poor  individuals,  who  cannot  expect  to  live  two  centuries,  those  same 
organic  filaments,  mysteriously  spinning  themselves,  will  be  the  best  part 
of  the  spectacle.    First,  therefore,  this  of  Mankind  in  general : 

"  In  vain  thou  deniest  it,"  says  the  Professor  ;  "  thou  art  my  Brother. 


108 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


Thy  very  Hatred,  thy  very  Envy,  those  foolish  Lies  thou  tellest  of  me  in 
thy  splenetic  humor  :  what  is  all  this  but  an  inverted  Sympathy  ?  Were 
I  a  Steam-engine,  wouldst  thou  take  the  trouble  to  tell  Lies  of  me  ?  Not 
thou  !    I  should  grind  all  unheeded,  whether  badly  or  well. 

"  Wondrous  truly  are  the  bonds  that  unite  us  one  and  all;  whether  by 
the  soft  binding  of  Love,  or  the  iron  chaining  of  Necessity,  as  we  like  to 
choose  it.  More  than  once,  have  I  said  to  myself,  of  some  perhaps 
whimsically  strutting  Figure,  such  as  provokes  whimsical  thoughts  : 
*  Wert  thou,  my  little  Brotherkin,  suddenly  covered  up  within  the  largest 
imaginable  Glass-bell, — what  a  thing  it  were,  not  for  thyself  only,  but  for 
the  world  !  Post  Letters,  more  or  fewer,  from  all  the  four  winds,  impinge 
against  thy  Glass  walls,  but  must  drop  unread  :  neither  from  within 
comes  there  question  or  response  into  any  Postbag ;  thy  Thoughts  fall 
into  no  friendly  ear  or  heart,  thy  Manufacture  into  no  purchasing  hand ; 
thou  art  no  longer  a  circulating  venous-arterial  Heart,  that,  taking  and 
giving,  circulatest  through  all  Space  and  all  Time  :  there  has  a  Hole 
fallen  out  in  the  immeasurable,  universal  World-tissue,  which  must  be 
darned  up  again !' 

"  Such  venous-arterial  circulation,  of  Letters,  verbal  Messages,  paper 
and  other  Packages,  going  out  from  him  and  coming  in,  are  a  blood-cir- 
culation, visible  to  the  eye  :  but  the  finer  nervous  circulation,  by  which 
all  things,  the  minutest  that  he  does,  minutely  influence  all  men,  and  the 
very  look  of  his  face  blesses  or  curses  whomso  it  lights  on,  and  so  gene- 
rates ever  new  blessing  or  new  cursing  :  all  this  you  cannot  see,  but  only 
imagine.  I  say,  there  is  not  a  red  Indian,  hunting  by  Lake  Winnipic, 
can  quarrel  with  his  squaw,  but  the  whole  world  must  smart  for  it :  will 
not  the  price  of  beaver  rise  ?  It  is  a  mathematical  fact  that  the  casting 
of  this  pebble  from  my  hand  alters  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  Universe. 

"  If  now  an  existing  generation  of  men  stand  so  woven  together,  not  less 
indissolubly  does  generation  with  generation.  Hast  thou  ever  meditated 
on  that  word  Tradition  :  how  we  inherit  not  Life  only,  but  all  the  garni- 
ture and  form  of  Life  ;  and  work,  and  speak,  and  even  think  and  feel,  as 
our  Fathers,  and  primeval  grandfathers,  from  the  beginning,  have  given 
it  us  ? — Who  printed  thee,  for  example,  this  unpretending  Volume  on  the 
Philosophy  of  Clothes  ?  Not  the  Herren  Stillschweigen  and  Company  : 
but  Cadmus  of  Thebes,  Faust  of  Mentz,  and  innumerable  others  whom 
thou  knowest  not.  Had  there  been  no  Maesogothic  Ulfila,  there  had  been 
no  English  Shakspeare,  or  a  different  one.  Simpleton !  it  was  Tubal- 
cain  that  made  thy  very  Tailor's  needle,  and  sewed  that  court  suit  of  thine. 

"  Yes,  truly,  if  Nature  is  one,  and  a  living  indivisible  whole,  much 
more  is  Mankind,  the  Image  that  reflects  and  creates  Nature,  without 
which  Nature  were  not.  As  palpable  life-streams  in  that  wondrous  In- 
dividual Mankind,  among  so  many  life-streams  that  are  not  palpable,  flow 
on  those  main-currents  of  what  we  call  Opinion ;  as  preserved  in  Institu- 
tions, Politics,  Churches,  above  all  in  Books.  Beautiful  it  is  to  under- 
stand and  know  that  a  Thought  did  never  yet  die  ;  that  as  thou,  the  ori- 
ginator thereof,  hast  gathered  it  and  created  it  from  the  whole  Past,  so 
thou  wilt  transmit  it  to  the  whole  Future.  It  is  thus  that  the  heroic 
Heart,  the  seeing  Eye  of  the  first  times,  still  feels  and  sees  in  us  of  the 
latest ;  that  the  Wise  Man  stands  ever  encompassed,  and  spiritually  em- 
braced, by  a  cloud  of  witnesses  and  brothers  ;  and  there  is  a  living,  literal 
Communion  of  Saints,  wide  as  the  World  itself,  and  as  the  History  of  the 
World. 

Noteworthy  also,  and  serviceable  for  the  progress  of  this  same  Indivi- 
dual, wilt  thou  find  his  subdivision  into  Generations.  Generations  are  as 
the  days  of  toilsome  Mankind ;  Death  and  Birth  are  the  vesper  and  the 
matin  bells,  that  summon  Mankind  to  sleep,  and  to  rise  refreshed  for  new 


ORGANIC  FILAMENTS. 


advancement.  What  the  Father  has  made  the  Son  can  make  and  enjoy ; 
but  has  also  work  of  his  own  appointed  him.  Thus  all  tilings  wax,  and 
roll  onwards ;  Arts,  Establishments,  Opinions,  nothing  is  completed,  but 
ever  completing.  Newton  has  learned  to  see  what  Kepler  saw  ;  but  there 
is  also  a  fresh  heaven-derived  force  in  Newton;  he  must  mount  to  still 
higher  points  of  vision.  So  too  the  Hebrew  Lawgiver  is,  in  due  time, 
followed  by  an  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  In  the  business  of  Destruction, 
as  this  also  is  from  time  to  time  a  necessary  work,  thou  findest  a  like 
sequence  and  perseverance :  for  Luther  it  was  as  yet  hot  enough  to  stand 
by  that  burning  of  the  Pope's  Bull ;  Voltaire  could  not  warm  himself  at 
the  glimmering  ashes,  but  required  quite  other  fuel.  Thus  likewise,  I 
note,  the  English  Whig  has,  in  the  second  generation,  become  an  English 
Radical ;  who,  in  the  third  again,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  will  become  an  Eng- 
lish Rebuilder.  Find  Mankind  where  thou  wilt,  thou  findest  it  in  living 
movement,  in  progress  faster  or  slower  :  the  Phoenix  soars  aloft,  hovers 
with  outstretched  wings,  filling  Earth  with  her  music  ;  or,  as  now,  she 
sinks,  and  with  spheral  swan-song  immolates  herself  in  flame,  that  she 
may  soar  the  higher  and  sing  the  clearer." 

Let  the  friends  of  social  order,  in  such  a  disastrous  period,  lay  this  to 
heart,  and  derive  from  it  any  little  comfort  they  can.  We  subjoin  another 
passage,  concerning  Titles : 

"  Remark,  not  without  surprise,"  says  Teufelsdrockh,  "  how  all  high 
Titles  of  Honor  come  hitherto  from  Fighting.  Your  Hcrzog  (Duke,  Dux) 
is  Leader  of  Armies ;  your  Earl  (Jarl)  is  Strong  Man ;  your  Marshal 
cavalry  Horse-shoer.  A  Millenium,  or  reign  of  Peace  and  Wisdom,  hav- 
ing from  of  old  been  prophesied,  and  becoming  now  daily  more  and  more 
indubitable,  may  it  not  be  apprehended  that  such  Fighting-titles  will 
cease  to  be  palatable,  and  new  and  higher  need  to  be  devised  ? 

"  The  only  Title  wherein  I,  with  confidence,  trace  eternity,  is  that  of 
King.  Kotiig  (King),  anciently  Kdnning,  means  Ken-ning  (Cunning),  or 
which  is  the  same  thing,  Can-ning.  Ever  must  the  Sovereign  of  Man^ 
kind  be  fitly  entitled  King." 

"  Well,  also,"  says  he  elsewhere,  "  was  it  written  by  Theologians  :  a 
King  rules  by  divine  right.  He  carries  in  him  an  authority  from  God,  or 
man  will  never  give  it  him.  Can  I  choose  my  own  King  ?  I  can  choose 
my  own  King  Popinjay,  and  play  what  farce  or  tragedy  I  may  with  him  : 
but  he  who  is  to  be  my  Ruler,  whose  will  is  to  be  higher  than  my  will, 
was  chosen  for  me  in  Heaven.  Neither  except  in  such  Obedience  to  the 
Heaven-chosen  is  Freedom  so  much  as  conceivable." 

The  Editor  will  here  admit  that,  among  all  the  wondrous  provinces  of 
Teufelsdrdckh's  spiritual  world,  there  is  none  he  walks  in  with  such  aston- 
ishment, hesitation,  and  even  pain,  as  in  the  Political.  How,  with 
our  English  love  of  Ministry  and  Opposition,  and  that  generous  conflict 
of  Parties,  mind  warming  itself  against  mind  in  their  mutual  wrestle  foj 
the  Public  Good,  by  which  wrestle,  indeed,  is  our  invaluable  Constitution 
kept  warm  and  alive  ;  how  shall  we  domesticate  ourselves  in  this  spectral 
Necropolis,  or  rather  City  both  of  the  Dead  and  of  the  Unborn,  where  the 
Present  seems  little  other  than  an  inconsiderable  Film  dividing  the  Past 
and  the  Future  ?  In  those  dim  longdrawn  expanses,  all  is  so  immeasura 
ble ;  much  so  disastrous,  ghastly ;  your  very  radiances,  and  straggling 
light-beams,  have  a  supernatural  character.  And  then  with  such  an 
indilierence,  such  a  prophetic  peacefulness  (accounting  the  inevitably- 
coming  as  already  here,  to  him  all  one  whether  it  be  distant  by  centuries 
or  only  by  days),  does  he  sit ; — and  live,  you  would  say,  rather  in  any 
other  age  than  in  his  own !  It  is  our  painful  duty  to  announce,  or 
repeat,  that,  looking  into  this  man,  we  discern  a  deep,  silent,  slow-burning, 
inextinguishable  Radicalism,  such  as  fills  us  with  shuddering  admiration. 


110 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


Thus,  for  example,  he  appears  to  make  little  even  of  the  Elective 
Franchise  ;  at  least  so  we  interpret  the  following  :  "  Satisfy  your- 
selves," he  says,  "  by  universal,  indubitable  experiment,  even  as  ye  are 
now  doing  or  will  do,  whether  Freedom  heavenborn  and  leading  heaven- 
ward, and  so  vitally  essential  for  us  all,  cannot  peradventure  be 
mechanically  hatched  and  brought  to  light  in  that  same  Ballot-Box  of 
yours ;  or  at  worst,  in  some  other  discoverable  or  devisable  Box,  Edifice, 
or  Steam-mechanism.  It  were  a  mighty  convenience ;  and  beyond  all 
feats  of  manufacture  witnessed  hitherto."  Is  Teufelsdrockh  acquainted 
with  the  British  Constitution,  even  slightly  ? — He  says,  under  another 
figure  :  "But  after  all,  were  the  problem,  as  indeed  it  now  everywhere 
is,  To  rebuild  your  old  House  from  the  top  downwards  (since  you  must 
live  in  it  the  while),  what  better,  what  other,  than  the  Representative 
Machine  will  serve  your  turn  ?  Meanwhile,  however,  mock  me  not  with 
the  name  of  Free,  '  when  you  have  but  knit  up  my  chains  into  orna- 
mental festoons.' M — Or  what  will  any  member  of  the  Peace  Society  make 
of  such  an  assertion  as  this  :  "  The  lower  people  everywhere  desire 
War.  Not  so  unwisely  ;  there  is  then  a  demand  for  lower  people — to  be 
shot !" 

Gladly,  therefore,  do  we  emerge  from  those  soul-confusing  labyrinths 
of  speculative  Radicalism,  into  somewhat  clearer  regions.  Here,  look- 
ing round,  as  was  our  hest,  for  "  organic  filaments,"  we  ask,  may  not  this, 
touching  "  Hero-worship,"  be  of  the  number  ?  It  seems  of  a  cheerful  char- 
acter ;  yet  so  quaint,  so  mystical,  one  knows  not  what,  or  how  little,  may 
lie  under  it.    Our  readers  shall  look  with  their  own  eyes  : 

"  True  is  it  that,  in  these  days,  man  can  do  almost  all  things,  only  not 
obey.  True  likewise  that  whoso  cannot  obey  cannot  be  free,  still  less 
bear  rule ;  he  that  iG  the  inferior  of  nothing,  can  be  the  superior  of 
nothing,  the  equal  of  nothing.  Nevertheless,  believe  not  that  man  has 
lost  his  faculty  of  Reverence ;  that  if  it  slumber  in  him,  it  has  gone  dead. 
Painful  for  man  is  that  same  rebellious  Independence,  when  it  has 
become  inevitable ;  only  in  loving  companionship  with  his  fellows  does 
he  feel  safe ;  only  in  reverently  bowing  down  before  the  Higher  does  he 
feel  himself  exalted. 

"  Or  what  if  the  character  of  our  so  troublous  Era  lay  even  in  this  : 
that  man  had  for  ever  cast  away  Fear,  which  is  the  lower  :  but  not  yet 
risen  into  perennial  Reverence,  which  is  the  higher  and  highest  ? 

"  Meanwhile,  observe  with  joy,  so  cunningly  has  Nature  ordered  it, 
that  whatsoever  man  ought  to  obey  he  cannot  but  obey.  Before  no  faintest 
revelation  of  the  Godlike  did  he  ever  stand  irreverent ;  least  of  all,  when 
the  Godlike  showed  itself  revealed  in  his  fellow-man.  Thus  is  there  a 
true  religious  Loyalty  for  ever  rooted  in  his  heart ;  nay,  in  all  ages,  even 
in  ours,  it  manifests  itself  as  a  more  or  less  orthodox  Hero-worship.  In 
which  fact,  that  Hero-worship  exists,  has  existed,  and  will  for  ever  exist, 
universally  among  Mankind,  mayest  thou  discern  the  corner-stone  of 
living-rock,  whereon  all  Polities  for  the  remotest  time  may  stand  secure." 

Do  our  readers  discern  any  such  corner-stone,  or  even  so  much  as 
what  Teufelsdrockh  is  looking  at  ?  He  exclaims,  "  Or  hast  thou  for- 
gotten Paris  and  Voltaire  ?  How  the  aged,  withered  man,  though  but  a 
Sceptic,  Mocker,  and  millinery  Court-poet,  yet  because  even  he  seemed  the 
Wisest,  Best,  could  drag  mankind  at  his  chariot-wheels,  so  that  princes 
coveted  a  smile  from  him,  and  the  loveliest  of  France  would  have  laid 
their  hair  beneath  his  feet !  All  Paris  was  one  vast  Temple  of  Hero- 
Worship ;  though  their  Divinity,  moreover,  was  of  feature  too  apish. 

"  But  if  such  things,"  continues  he,  "  were  done  in  the  dry  tree,  what 
will  be  done  in  the  green  ?  If,  in  the  most  parched  season  of  Man's 
History,  in  the  most  parched  spot  of  Europe,  when  Parisian  life  w,as  at 


ORCANIC  FILAMENTS. 


Ill 


best  but  a  scientific  Hortus  Siccus,  bedizened  with  some  Italian  Gum- 
tlowers,  such  virtue  could  come  out  of  it ;  what  is  it  to  be  looked  for 
when  Life  again  waves  leafy  and  bloomy,  and  your  Hero-Divinity  shall 
have  nothing  ape-like,  but  be  wholly  human  ?  Know  that  there  is  in 
man  a  quite  indestructible  Reverence  for  whatsoever  holds  of  Heaven,  or 
even  plausibly  counterfeits  such  holding.  Show  the  dullest  clodpole, 
show  the  haughtiest  featherhead,  that  a  soul  Higher  than  himself  is 
actually  here  ;  were  his  knees  stiffened  into  brass,  he  must  down  and 
worship." 

Organic  filaments,  of  a  more  authentic  sort,  mysteriously  spinning 
themselves,  some  will  perhaps  discover  in  the  following  passage  : 

"  There  is  no  Church,  sayest  thou  ?  The  voice  of  Prophecy  has  gone 
dumb  ?  This  is  even  what  I  dispute  :  but  in  any  case,  hast  thou  not  still 
Preaching  enough  ?  A  Preaching  Friar  settles  himself  in  every  village ; 
and  builds  a  pulpit,  which  he  calls  Newspaper.  Therefrom  he  preaches 
what  most  momentous  doctrine  is  in  him,  for  man's  salvation ;  and  dost 
not  thou  listen,  and  believe  ?  Look  well,  thou  seest  everywhere  a  new 
Clergy  of  the  Mendicant  Orders,  some  bare-footed,  some  almost  bare- 
backed, fashion  itself  into  shape,  and  teach  and  preach,  zealously 
enough,  for  copper  alms  and  the  love  of  God.  These  break  in  pieces  the 
ancient  idols  :  and  though  themselves  too  often  reprobate,  as  idol- 
breakers  are  wont  to  be,  mark  out  the  sites  of  new  Churches,  where  the 
true  God-ordained,  that  are  to  follow,  may  find  audience,  and  minister. 
Said  I  not,  Before  the  old  skin  was  shed,  the  new  had  formed  itself 
beneath  it  ?" 

Perhaps,  also,  in  the  following  ;  wherewith  we  now  hasten  to  knit  up 
this  ravelled  sleeve  : 

"  But  there  is  no  Religion  ?"  reiterates  the  Professor.  "  Fool !  I  tell 
thee,  there  is.  Hast  thou  well  considered  all  that  lies  in  this  immeasurable 
froth-ocean  we  name  Literature  ?  Fragments  of  a  genuine  Church- 
Homiletic  lie  scattered  there,  which  Time  will  assort :  nay,  fractions 
even  of  a  Liturgy  could  I  point  out.  And  knowest  thou  no  Prophet, 
even  in  the  vesture,  environment,  and  dialect  of  this  age  ?  None  to 
whom  the  Godlike  had  revealed  itself,  through  all  meanest  and  highest 
forms  of  the  Common  ;  and  by  him  been  again  prophetically  revealed :  in 
whose  inspired  melody,  even  in  these  rag-gathering  and  rag-burning  days, 
Man's  Life  again  begins,  were  it  but  afar  oft',  to  be  divine  ?  Knowest 
thou  none  such  ?    I  know  him,  and  name  him — Goethe. 

"  But  thou  as  yet  standest  in  no  Temple  ;  joinest  in  no  Psalm-worship ; 
feelest  well  that,  where  there  is  no  ministering  Priest,  the  people  perish? 
Be  of  comfort  !  Thou  art  not  alone,  if  thou  have  Faith.  Spake  we  not 
of  a  Communion  of  Saints,  unseen,  yet  not  unreal,  accompanying  and 
brother-like  embracing  thee,  so  thou  be  worthy  ?  Their  heroic  Sufferings 
rise  up  melodiously  together  to  Heaven,  out  of  all  lands,  and  out  of  all 
times,  as  a  sacred  Miserere ;  their  heroic  Actions  also,  as  a  boundless, 
everlasting  Psalm  of  Triumph.  Neither  say  that  thou  hast  now  no 
Symbol  of  the  Godlike.  Is  not  God's  Universe  a  Symbol  of  the  Godlike  ; 
is  not  Immensity  a  Temple ;  is  not  Man's  History,  and  Men's  History,  a 
perpetual  Evangel  ?  Listen,  and  for  organ-music  thou  wilt  ever,  as  of 
old,  hear  the  Morning  Stars  sing  together." 


112 


SARTOR  RESARTTTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

NATURAL  SUPERNATURALISM. 

It  is  in  his  stupendous  Section,  headed  Natural  Supernaturalism,  that 
the  Professor  first  becomes  a  Seer ;  and,  after  long  effort,  such  as  we 
have  witnessed,  finally  subdues  under  his  feet  this  refractory  Clothes- 
Philosophy,  and  takes  victorious  possession  thereof.  Phantasms  enough 
he  has  had  to  struggle  with  ;  "Cloth-webs  and  Cobwebs,"  of  Imperial 
Mantles,  Superannuated  Symbols,  and  what  not :  yet  still  did  he  courage- 
ously pierce  through.  Nay,  worst  of  all,  two  quite  mysterious,  world- 
embracing  Phantasms,  Time  and  Space,  have  ever  hovered  round  him, 
perplexing  and  bewildering:  but  with  these  also  he  now  resolutely 
grapples,  these  also  he  victoriously  rends  asunder.  In  a  word,  he  has 
looked  fixedly  on  Existence,  till,  one  after  the  other,  its  earthly  hulls  and 
garnitures  have  all  melted  away  ;  and  now,  to  his  rapid  vision,  the  interior 
celestial  Holy  of  Holies  lies  disclosed. 

Here  therefore  properly  it  is  that  the  Philosophy  of  Clothes  attains  to 
Transcendentalism ;  this  last  leap,  can  we  but  clear  it,  takes  us  safe  into 
the  promised  land,  where  Palingenesia,  in  all  senses,  may  be  considered 
as  beginning.  "  Courage,  then !"  may  our  Diogenes  exclaim,  with 
better  right  than  Diogenes  the  First  once  did.  This  stupendous  Section 
we,  after  long  painful  meditation,  have  found  not  to  be  unintelligible  ; 
but  on  the  contrary  to  grow  clear,  nay  radiant,  and  all-illuminating. 
Let  the  reader,  turning  on  it  what  utmost  force  of  speculative  intellect  is 
in  him,  do  his  part;  as  we,  by  judicious  selection  and  adjustment,  shall 
study  to  do  ours  : 

"  Deep  has  been,  and  is,  the  significance  of  Miracles,"  thus  quietly 
begins  the  Professor ;  "  far  deeper  perhaps  than  we  imagine.  Mean- 
while, the  question  of  questions  were :  What  specially  is  a  Miracle  ? 
To  that  Dutch  King  of  Siam,  an  icicle  had  been  a  miracle  ;  whoso  had 
carried  with  him  an  air-pump,  and  phial  of  vitriolic  ether,  might  have 
worked  a  miracle.  To  my  Horse  again,  who  unhappily  is  still  more 
unscientific,  do  not  I  work  a  miracle,  and  magical '  Open  sesame  I9  every- 
time  I  please  to  pay  twopence,  and  open  for  him  an  impassable  Schlag- 
baum,  or  shut  Turnpike  ? 

" ■  But  is  not  a  real  Miracle  simply  a  violation  of  the  Laws  of 
Nature  V  ask  several.  Whom  I  answer  by  this  new  question  :  What 
are  the  Laws  of  Nature  ?  To  me  perhaps  the  rising  of  one  from  the 
dead  were  no  violation  of  these  Laws,  but  a  confirmation  ;  were  some 
far  deeper  Laws,  now  first  penetrated  into,  and  by  Spiritual  Force,  even 
as  the  rest  have  all  been,  brought  to  bear  on  us  with  its  Material  Force. 

"Here  too  may  some  inquire,  not  without  astonishment  :  On  what 
ground  shall  one,  that  can  make  Iron  swim,  come  and  delare  that  there- 
fore he  can  teach  Religion  ?  To  us,  truly,  of  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
such  declaration  were  inept  enough  ;  which  nevertheless  to  our  fathers, 
of  the  First  Century,  was  full  of  meaning. 

"  '  But  is  it  not  the  deepest  Law  of  Nature  that  she  be  constant  V 
cries  an  illuminated  class  :  « Is  not  the  Machine  of  the  Universe  fixed  to 
move  by  unalterable  rules  ?'  Probable  enough,  good  friends  :  nay,  I  too 
must  believe  that  the  God,  whom  ancient,  inspired  men,  assert  to  be 
(  without  variableness  or  shadow  of  turning/  does  indeed  never  change  ; 
that  Nature,  that  the  Universe,  which  no  one  whom  it  so  pleases  can  be 
prevented  from  calling  a  Machine,  does  move  by  the  most  unalterable 
rules.     And  now  of  you  too  I  make  the  old  inquiry  :    What  those,same 


NATURAL  SUPERNATURALISM. 


113 


unalterable  rules,  forming  the  complete  Statute-Book  of  Nature,  may 
possibly  be  ? 

"  They  stand  written  in  our  Works  of  Science,  say  you ;  in  the  accu- 
mulated records  of  man's  Eperience  ? — Was  man  with  his  Experience 
present  at  the  Creation,  then,  to  see  how  it  all  went  on  ?  Have  any 
deepest  scientific  individuals  yet  dived  down  to  the  foundations  of  the 
Universe,  and  gauged  everything  there  ?  Did  the  Maker  take  them  into 
His  Counsel ;  that  they  read  His  ground-plan  of  the  incomprehensible 
All ;  and  can  say,  This  stands  marked  therein,  and  no  more  than  this  ? 
Alas,  not  in  anywise  !  These  scientific  individuals  have  been  nowhere 
but  where  we  also  are  ;  have  seen  some  handbreadths  deeper  than  we 
see  into  the  Deep  that  is  infinite,  without  bottom  as  without  shore. 

"  Laplace's  Book  on  the  Stars,  wherein  he  exhibits  that  certain 
Planets,  with  their  Satellites,  gyrate  round  our  worthy  Sun,  at  a  rate  and 
in  a  course,  which  by  the  greatest  good  fortune,  he  and  the  like  of  him 
have  succeeded  in  detecting, — is  to  me  as  precious  as  to  another.  But  is 
this  what  thou  namest e  Mechanism  of  the  Heavens,'  and  *  System  of  the 
World  ;'  this,  wherein  Sirius  and  the  Pleiades,  and  all  Herschel's  Fifteen 
thousand  Suns  per  minute,  being  left  out,  some  paltry  handful  of  Moons, 
and  inert  Balls,  had  been — looked  at,  nicknamed,  and  marked  in  the 
Zodiacal  Waybill ;  so  that  we  can  now  prate  of  their  Whereabout  ;  their 
How,  their  Why,  their  What,  being  hid  from  us  as  in  the  signless  Inane  ? 

"  System  of  Nature  !  To  the  wisest  man,  wide  as  is  his  vision,  Nature 
remains  of  quite  infinite  depth,  of  quite  infinite  expansion ;  and  all 
Experience  thereof  limits  itself  to  some  few  computed  centuries,  and  mea- 
sured square-miles.  The  course  of  Nature's  phases,  on  this  our  little 
fraction  of  a  Planet,  is  partially  known  to  us  :  but  who  knows  what 
deeper  courses  these  depend  on ;  what  infinitely  larger  Cycle  (of  causes) 
our  little  Epicycle  revolves  on?  To  the  Minnow  every  cranny  and 
pebble,  and  quality  and  accident,  of  its  little  native  Creek  may  have 
become  familiar :  but  does  the  Minnow  understand  the  Ocean  Tides  and 
periodic  Currents,  the  Trade-winds,  and  Monsoons,  and  Moon's  Eclipses  ; 
by  all  which  the  condition  of  its  little  Creek  is  regulated,  and  may,  from 
time  to  time  (ttnmiraculously  enough),  be  quite  overset  and  reversed  ? 
Such  a  minnow  is  man ;  his  Creek  this  Planet  Earth ;  his  Ocean  the 
immeasurable  All :  his  Monsoons  and  periodic  Currents  the  mysterious 
Course  of  Providence  through  JEons  of  iEons. 

"  We  speak  of  the  Volume  of  Nature  :  and  truly  a  Volume  it  is, — 
whose  Author  and  Writer  is  God.  To  read  it  !  Dost  thou,  does  man, 
so  much  as  well  know  the  Alphabet  thereof?  With  its  Words, 
Sentences,  and  grand  descriptive  Pages,  poetical  and  philosophical,  spread 
out  through  Solar  Systems,  and  Thousands  of  Years,  we  shall  not  try 
thee.  It  is  a  Volume  written  in  celestial  hieroglyphs,  in  the  true  Sacred- 
writing  ;  of  which  even  Prophets  are  happy  that  they  can  read  here  a 
line  and  there  a  line.  As  for  your  Institutes,  and  Academies  of 
Science,  they  strive  bravely ;  and,  from  amid  the  thick-crowded, 
inextricably  intertwisted  hieroglyphic  writing,  pick  out,  by  dexterous 
combination,  some  Letters  in  the  vulgar  Character,  and  therefrom  put 
together  this  and  the  other  economic  Recipe,  of  high  avail  in  Practice. 
That  Nature  is  more  than  some  boundless  Volume  of  such  Recipes,  or 
huge,  well-nigh  inexhaustible  Domestic-Cookery  Book,  of  which  the 
whole  secret  will,  in  this  wise,  one  day,  evolve  itself,  the  fewest  dream. 

"  Custom,"  continues  the  Professor,  "  doth  make  dotards  of  us  all. 
Consider  well,  thou  wilt  find  that  Custom  is  the  greatest  of  Weavers ; 
and  weaves  air-raiment  for  all  the  Spirits  of  the  Universe ;  whereby 
indeed  these  dwell  with  us  visibly,  as  ministering  servants,  in  our  houses 
and  workshops ;  but  their  spiritual  nature  becomes,  to  the  most,  for  ever 
10* 


114 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


hidden.  Philosophy  complains  that  Custom  has  hoodwinked  us,  from  the 
first ;  that  we  do  everything  by  Custom,  even  Believe  by  it ;  that  our 
very  Axioms,  let  us  boast  of  Freethinking  as  we  may,  are  oftenest  simply 
such  Beliefs  as  we  have  never  heard  questioned.  Nay,  what  is  Philoso- 
phy but  a  continual  battle  against  Custom  ;  an  ever-renewed  effort  to 
transcend  the  sphere  of  blind  Custom,  and  so  become  Transcendental  ? 

"  Innumerable  are  the  illusions  and  legerdemain  tricks  of  Custom  :  but 
of  all  these  perhaps  the  cleverest  is  her  knack  of  persuading  us  that  the 
Miraculous,  by  simple  representation,  ceases  to  be  Miraculous.  True,  it 
is  by  this  means  we  live :  for  man  must  work  as  well  as  wonder  :  and 
herein  is  Custom  so  far  a  kind  nurse,  guiding  him  to  his  true  benefit. 
But  she  is  a  fond  foolish  nurse,  or  rather  we  are  false  foolish  nurselings, 
when,  in  our  resting  and  reflecting  hours,  we  prolong  the  same  deception. 
Am  I  to  view  the  Stupendous  with  stupid  indifference,  because  I  have  seen 
it  twice,  or  two  hundred,  or  two  million  times  ?  There  is  no  reason  in 
Nature  or  in  Art  why  I  should  :  unless,  indeed,  I  am  a  mere  Work- 
Machine,  for  whom  the  divine  gift  of  Thought  were  no  other  than  the 
terrestrial  gift  of  Steam  is  to  the  Steam-engine  ;  a  power  whereby  Cotton 
might  be  spun,  and  money  and  money's  worth  realised. 

"  Notable  enough  too,  here  as  elsewhere,  wilt  thou  find  the  potency  of 
Names  ;  which  indeed  are  but  one  kind  of  such  Custom-woven,  wonder- 
hiding  garments.  Witchcraft,  and  all  manner  of  Spectre-work,  and  De- 
monology,  we  have  now  named  Madness,  and  Diseases  of  the  Nerves. 
Seldom  reflecting  that  still  the  new  question  comes  upon  us  :  What  is 
Madness,  what  are  Nerves  ?  Ever,  as  before,  does  Madness  remain  a 
mysterious-terrific,  altogether  infernal  boiling  up  of  the  Nether  Chaotic 
Deep,  through  this  fair-painted  Vision  of  Creation,  which  swims  thereon, 
which  we  name  the  Real.  Was  Luther's  Picture  of  the  Devil  less  a 
Reality,  whether  it  were  formed  within  the  bodily  eye,  or  without  it  ?  In 
every  the  wisest  Soul,  lies  a  whole  world  of  internal  Madness,  an  authen- 
tic Demon-Empire  ;  out  of  which,  indeed,  his  world  of  Wisdom  has  been 
creatively  built  together,  and  now  rests  there,  as  on  its  dark  foundations 
does  a  habitable  flowery  Earth-rind. 

"  But  deepest  of  all  illusory  Appearances,  for  hiding  Wonder,  as  for 
many  other  ends,  are  your  two  grand  fundamental  world-enveloping  Ap- 
pearances, Space  and  Time.  These,  as  spun  and  woven  for  us  from 
before  Birth  itself,  to  clothe  our  celestial  Me  for  dwelling  here,  and  yet 
to  blind  it, — lie  all-embracing,  as  the  universal  canvass,  or  warp  and 
woof,  whereby  all  minor  Illusions,  in  this  Phantasm  Existence,  weave 
and  paint  themselves.  In  vain,  while  here  on  Earth,  shall  you  endeavor 
to  strip  them  off;  you  can,  at  best,  but  rend  them  asunder  for  moments, 
and  look  through. 

"  Fortunatus  had  a  wishing  Hat,  which  when  he  put  on,  and  wished 
himself  Anywhere,  behold  he  was  There.  By  this  means  had  Fortunatus 
triumphed  over  Space,  he  had  annihilated  Space ;  for  him  there  was  no 
Where,  but  all  was  Here.  Were  a  Hatter  to  establish  himself  in  the 
Wahngasse  of  Weissnichtwo,  and  make  felts  of  this  sort  for  all  mankind, 
what  a  world  we  should  have  of  it !  Still  stranger,  should,  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  street,  another  Hatter  establish  himself;  and,  as  his  fel- 
low-craftsman made  Space-annihilating  Hats,  make  Time-annihilating  ? 
Of  both  would  I  purchase,  were  it  with  my  last  groschen ;  but  chiefly  of 
this  latter.  To  clap  on  your  felt,  and,  simply  by  wishing  that  you  were 
Anywhere,  straightway  to  be  There !  Next  to  clap  on  your  other  felt, 
and,  simply  by  wishing  that  you  were  Anywhen,  straightway  to  be  Then  ! 
Tli  is  were  indeed  the  grander  :  shooting  at  wilt  from  the  Fire-Creation  of 
'the  World  to  its  Fire-Consummation;  here  historically  present  in  the 
First  Century,  conversing  face  to  face  with  Paul  and  Seneca,  there  pro- 


NATURAL  SUPERNATURALISM. 


115 


phetically  in  the  Thirty-first,  conversing  also  face  to  face  with  other 
Pauls  and  Senecas,  who  as  yet  stand  hidden  in  the  depth  of  that  late  Time  I 
*  Or  thinkest  thou,  it  were  impossible,  unimaginable  ?  Is  the  Past 
annihilated,  then,  or  only  past ;  is  the  Future  non-extant,  or  only  future  ? 
Those  mystic  faculties  of  thine,  Memory  and  Hope,  already  answer: 
already  through  those  mystic  avenues,  thou  the  Earth-blinded  summonest 
both  Past  and  Future,  and  communest  with  them,  though  as  yet  darkly, 
and  with  mute  beckonings.  The  curtains  of  Yesterday  drop  down,  the 
curtains  of  To-morrow  roll  up  ;  but  Yesterday  and  To-morrow  both  arc. 
Pierce  through  the  Time-Element,  glance  into  the  Eternal.  Believe  what 
thou  findest  written  in  the  sanctuaries  of  Man's  Soul,  even  as  all  Think- 
ers, in  all  ages,  have  devoutly  read  it  there  :  that  Time  and  Space  are  not 
God,  but  creations  of  God  ;  that  with  God  as  it  is  a  universal  Here,  so  is 
it  an  Everlasting  Now. 

"  And  seest  thou  therein  any  glimpse  of  Immortality  ? — 0  Heaven  ! 
Is  the  white  Tomb  of  our  Loved  One,  who  died  from  our  arms,  and  must 
be  left  behind  us  there,  which  rises  in  the  distance,  like  a  pale,  mournfully 
receding  Milestone,  to  tell  how  many  toilsome  uncheered  miles  we  have 
journeyed  on  alone, — but  a  pale  spectral  Illusion  !  Is  the  lost  Friend 
still  mysteriously  Here,  even  as  we  are  Here  mysteriously,  with  God  ! — 
Know  of  a  truth  that  only  the  Time-shadows  have  perished,  or  are 
perishable ;  that  the  real  Being  of  whatever  was,  and  whatever  is,  and 
whatever  will  be,  is  even  now  and  for  ever.  This,  should  it  seem  new, 
thou  mayest  ponder,  at  thy  leisure ;  for  the  next  twenty  years,  or  the  next 
twenty  centuries  :  believe  it  thou  must;  understand  it  thou  canst  not. 

"  That  the  Thought-forms,  Space  and  Time,  wherein,  once  for  all,  we 
are  sent  into  this  Earth  to  live,  should  condition  and  determine  our  whole 
Practical  reasonings,  conceptions,  and  imagings  or  imaginings, — seems 
altogether  fit,  just  and  unavoidable.  But  that  they  should,  farthermore, 
usurp  such  sway  over  pure  spiritual  Meditation,  and  blind  us  to  the  won- 
der everywhere  lying  close  on  us,  seems  nowise  so.  Admit  Space  and 
Time  to  their  due  rank  as  Forms  of  Thought ;  nay,  even,  if  thou  wilt,  to 
their  quite  undue  rank  of  Realities:  and  consider,  then,  with  thyself  how 
their  thin  disguises  hide  from  us  the  brightest  God-effulgences  !  Thus, 
were  it  not  miraculous,  could  I  stretch  forth  my  hand,  and  clutch  the  Sun  ? 
Yet  thou  seest  me  daily  stretch  forth  my  hand,  and  therewith  clutch  many  . 
a  thing,  and  swing  it  hither  and  thither.  Art  thou  a  grown  Baby,  then,  j 
to  fancy  that  the  Miracle  lies  in  miles  of  distance,  or  in  pounds  avoirdu-  I 
pois  of  weight ;  and  not  to  see  that  the  true  inexplicable  God-revealing 
Miracle  lies  in  this,  that  I  can  stretch  forth  my  hand  at  all ;  that  I  have 
free  Force  to  clutch  aught  therewith  ?  Innumerable  other  of  this  sort  are 
1  lie  deceptions,  and  wonder-hiding  stupefactions,  that  Space  practises  on  us. 

u  Still  worse  is  it  with  regard  to  Time.  Your  grand  anti-magician,  and 
universal  wonder-hider,  is  this  same  lying  Time.  Had  we  but  the  Time 
annihilating  Hat,  to  put  on  for  once  only,  we  should  see  ourselves  in  a 
World  of  Miracles,  wherein  all  fabled  or  authentic  Thaumaturgy,  and 
feats  of  Magic,  were  outdone.  But  unhappily  we  have  not  such  a  Hat  ; 
and  man,  poor  fool  that  he  is,  can  seldom  help  himself  without  one. 

"  Were  it  not  wonderful,  for  instance,  had  Orpheus,  or  Amphion,  built 
the  walls  of  Thebes  by  the  mere  sound  of  his  Lyre  ?  Yet  tell  me,  Who 
built  these  walls  of  Weissnichtwo ;  summoning  out  all  the  sandstone 
rocks,  to  dance  along  from  the  Steinbruch  (now  a  huge  Troglodyte  Chasm, 
with  frightful  green-mantled  pools)  ;  and  shape  themselves  into  Doric  and 
Ionic  pillars,  squared  ashlar  houses,  and  noble  streets  ?  Was  it  not  the 
still  higher  Orpheus,  or  Orph eases,  who,  in  past  centuries,  by  the  divine 
Music  of  Wisdom,  succeeded  in  civilizing  Man  ?  Our  highest  Orpheus 
walked  in  Judea,  eighteen  hundred  years  ago:  his  sphere-melody,  llowing 


110 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


in  wild  native  tones,  took  captive  the  ravished  souls  of  men ;  and  being, 
of  a  truth,  sphere-melody,  still  flows  and  sounds,  though  now  with  thou- 
sandfold Accompaniments,  and  rich  symphonies,  through  all  our  hearts; 
and  modulates,  and  divinely  leads  them.  Is  that  a  wonder,  which  hap- 
pens in  two  hours  ;  and  docs  it  cease  to  be  wonderful  if  happening  in  two 
million  ?  Not  only  was  Thebes  built  by  the  Music  of  an  Orpheus ;  but 
without  the  music  of  some  inspired  Orpheus  was  no  city  ever  built,  no 
work  that  man  glories  in  ever  done. 

"  Sweep  away  the  Illusion  of  Time;  glance,  if  thou  have  eyes,  from 
the  near  moving-cause  to  its  far  distant  Mover :  The  stroke  that  came 
transmitted  through  a  whole  galaxy  of  elastic  balls,  was  it  less  a  stroke 
than  if  the  last  ball  only  had  been  struck,  and  sent  flying  ?  Oh,  could  1 
(with  the  Time-annihilating  Hat)  transport  thee  direct  from  the  Begin- 
nings to  the  Endings,  how  Avere  thy  eyesight  unsealed,  and  thy  heart  set 
flaming  in  the  Light-sea  of  celestial  wonder  !  Then  sawest  thou  that  this 
fair  Universe,  were  it  in  the  meanest  province  thereof,  is  in  very  deed 
the  star-doomed  City  of  God;  that  through  every  star,  through  every 
grassblade,  and  most  through  every  Living  Soul,  the  glory  of  a  present 
God  still  beams.  But  Nature,  which  is  the  Time-vesture  of  God,  and 
reveals  Him  to  the  wise,  hides  Him  from  the  foolish. 

"  Again,  could  anything  be  more  miraculous  than  an  actual  authentic 
Ghost  ?  The  English  Johnson  longed,  all  his  life,  to  see  one;  but  could 
not,  though  he  went  to  Cock  Lane,  and  thence  to  the  church-vaults,  and 
tapped  on  coffins.  Foolish  Doctor  !  Did  he  never,  with  the  mind's  eye 
as  well  as  with  the  body's,  look  round  him  into  that  full  tide  of  human 
Life  he  so  loved ;  did  he  never  so  much  as  look  into  Himself?  The 
good  Doctor  was  a  Ghost,  as  actual  and  authentic  as  heart  could  wish  ; 
well  nigh  a  million  of  Ghosts  were  travelling  the  streets  by  his  side. 
Once  more  I  say,  sweep  away  the  illusion  of  Time ;  compress  the  three- 
score years  into  three  minutes :  what  else  was  he,  what  else  are  we  ? 
Are  we  not  Spirits,  shaped  into  a  body,  into  an  Appearance ;  and  that 
fade  away  again  into  air,  and  Invisibility  ?  This  is  no  metaphor,  it  is  a 
simple  scientific  fact :  we  start  out  of  Nothingness,  take  figure,  and  are 
Apparitions ;  round  us,  as  round  the  veriest  spectre,  is  Eternity;  and  to 
Eternity  minutes  are  as  years  and  ceons.  Come  there  not  tones  of  Love 
and  Faith,  as  from  celestial  harp-strings,  like  the  Song  of  beatified  Souls  ? 
And  again,  do  we  not  squeak  and  gibber  (in  our  discordant,  screech- 
owlish  debatings  and  recriminatings)  ;  and  glide  bodeful,  and  feeble,  and 
fearful ;  or  uproar  (poltern),  and  revel  in  our  mad  Dance  of  the  Dead, — 
till  the  scent  of  the  morning-air  summons  us  to  our  still  Home ;  and 
dreamy  Night  becomes  awake  and  Day  ?  Where  now  is  Alexander  of 
Macedon ;  does  the  steel  Host,  that  yelled  in  fierce  battle-shouts  at  Issus 
and  Arbela,  remain  behind  him ;  or  have  they  all  vanished  utterly,  even 
as  perturbed  Goblins  must  ?  Napoleon  too,  and  his  Moscow  Retreats 
and  Austerlitz  Campaigns  !  Was  it  all  other  than  the  veriest  Spectre- 
Hunt;  which  has  now,  with  its  howling  tumult  that  made  Night 
hideous,  flitted  away  ? — Ghosts  !  There  are  nigh  a  thousand  million 
walking  the  earth  openly  at  noontide ;  some  half-hundred  have  vanished 
from  it,  some  half-hundred  have  arisen  in  it,  ere  thy  watch  ticks  once. 

"  O  Heaven,  it  is  mysterious,  it  is  awful  to  consider  that  we  not  only 
carry  each  a  future  Ghost  within  him ;  but  are,  in  very  deed,  Ghosts ! 
These  Limbs,  whence  had  we  them  ;  this  stormy  Force;  this  life-blood 
with  its  burning  Passion  ?  They  are  dust  and  shadow;  a  Shadow-system 
gathered  round  our  Me  ;  wherein,  through  some  moments  or  years,  the 
Divine  Essence  is  to  be  revealed  in  the  Flesh.  That  warrior  on  his 
strong  war-horse,  fire  flashes  through  his  eyes ;  force  dwells  in  his  arm  and 
heart :  but  warrior  and  war-horse  are  a  vision ;  a  revealed  Force,  nothing 


CIRCUMSPECTIVE. 


117 


more.  Stately  they  tread  the  Earth,  as  if  it  were  a  firm  substance :  fool ! 
the  Earth  is  but  a  film  ;  it  cracks  in  twain,  and  warrior  and  war-horse 
sink  beyond  plummet's  sounding.  Plummet's  ?  Fantasy  herself  will  not 
follow  them.  A  little  while  ago  they  were  not ;  a  little  while  and  they 
are  not,  their  very  ashes  are  not. 

"  So  has  it  been  from  the  beginning,  and  so  it  will  be  to  the  end.  Gene- 
ration after  generation  takes  to  itself  the  Form  of  a  Body ;  and  forth- 
issuing  from  Cimmerian  Night,  on  Heaven's  mission  appears.  What 
Force  and  Fire  is  in  each  he  expends :  one  grinding  in  the  mill  of  Indus- 
try ;  one  hunter-like  climbing  the  giddy  Alpine  heights  of  Science ;  one 
madly  dashed  in  pieces  on  the  rocks  of  Strife,  in  war  with  his  fellow  : — 
and  then  the  Heaven-sent  is  recalled  ;  his  earthly  Vesture  falls  away,  and 
soon  even  to  Sense  becomes  a  vanished  Shadow.  Thus,  like  some  wild- 
fiaming,  wild-thundering  train  of  Heaven's  Artillery,  does  this  mysterious 
Mankind  thunder  and  flame,  in  long-drawn,  quick-succeeding  grandeur, 
through  the  unknown  Deep.  Thus,  like  a  God-created,  fire-  breath  in  g 
Spirit-host,  we  emerge  from  the  Inane ;  haste  stormfully  across  the  aston- 
ished Earth ;  then  plunge  again  into  the  Inane.  Earth's  mountains  are 
levelled,  and  her  seas  filled  up,  in  our  passage :  can  the  Earth,  which  is 
but  dead  and  a  vision,  resist  Spirits  which  have  reality  and  are  alive  ? 
On  the  hardest  adamant  some  foot-print  of  us  is  stamped  in ;  the  last 
Rear  of  the  host  will  read  traces  of  the  earliest  Van.  But  whence  ? — O 
Heaven,  whither  ?  Sense  knows  not ;  Faith  knows  not ;  only  that  it  is 
through  Mystery  to  Mystery,  from  God  and  to  God. 

' "  We  are  such  stuff 
As  Dreams  are  made  of,  and  our  little  Life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep  !" 5 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CIRCUMSPECTIVE. 

Here  then  arises  the  so  momentous  question :  Have  many  British 
Readers  actually  arrived  with  us  at  the  new  promised  country ;  is  the 
Philosophy  of  Clothes  now  at  last  opening  around  them  ?  Long  and 
adventurous  has  the  journey  been  :  from  those  outmost  vulgar,  palpable 
Woollen-Hulls  of  Man  ;  through  his  wondrous  Flesh-Garments,  and  his 
wondrous  Social  Garnitures  ;  inwards  to  the  Garments  of  his  very  Soul's 
Soul,  to  Time  and  Space  themselves  ?  And  now  does  the  Spiritual, 
eternal  Essence  of  Man  and  of  Mankind,  bared  of  such  wrappages,  begin, 
in  any  measure  to  reveal  itself  ?  Can  many  readers  discern,  as  through 
a  glass  darkly,  in  huge  wavering  outlines,  some  primeval  rudiments  of 
Man's  Being,  what  is  changeable  divided  from  what  is  unchangeable  ? 
Does  that  Earth-Spirit's  speech  in  Faust : 

"~Tis  thus  at  the  roaring  Loom  of  Time  I  play, 

And  weave  for  God  the  Garment  thou  see'st  him  by ;" 

or  that  other  thousand-times-repeated  speech  of  the  Magician,  Shaks- 
peare : 

"And  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  this  vision, 
The  cloudcapt  Towers,  the  gorgeous  Palaces, 
The  solemn  Temples,  the  great  Globe  itself, 
And  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve ; 
And  like  this  unsubstantial  pageant  faded, 
Leave  not  a  wrack  behind ;" 

begin  to  have  some  meaning  for  us  ?  In  a  word,  do  we  at  length  stand 
safe  in  the  far  region  of  Poetic  Creation  and  Palingenesia,  where  that 
Phoenix  Death-Birth  of  Human  Society,  and  of  all  Human  Things, 
appears  possible,  is  seen  to  be  inevitable  ? 


118 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


Along  111  is  most  insufficient,  unheard-of-Bridge,  which  the  Editor,  by- 
Heaven's  blessing,  has  now  seen  himself  enabled  to  conclude,  if  not  com- 
plete, it  cannot  be  his  sober  calculation,  but  only  his  fond  hope,  that 
many  have  travelled  without  accident.  No  firm  arch,  overspanning  the 
Impassible  with  paved  highway, could  the  Editor  construct;  only,  as  was 
said,  some  zigzag  series  of  rafts  floating  tumultously  thereon.  Alas, 
and  the  leaps  from  raft  to  raft  were  too  often  of  a  breakneck  character  ; 
the  darkness,  the  nature  of  the  element,  all  was  against  us  ! 

Nevertheless,  may  not  here  and  there  one  of  a  thousand,  provided  with 
a  discursiveness  of  intellect  rare  in  our  day,  have  cleared  the  passage,  in 
spite  of  all  ?  Happy  few  !  little  band  of  Friends  !  be  welcome,  be  of 
courage.  By  degrees,  the  eye  grows  accustomed  to  its  new  Whereabout ; 
the  hand  can  stretch  itself  forth  to  work  there  :  it  is  in  this  grand  and 
indeed  highest  work  of  Palingencsia  that  ye  shall  labor,  each  accordim-; 
to  ability.  New  laborers  will  arrive;  new  Bridges  will  be  built:  nay, 
may  not  our  own  poor  rope-and-raft  Bridge,  in  your  passings  and 
repassings,  be  mended  in  many  a  point,  till  it  grow  quite  firm,  passable 
even  for  the  halt  ? 

Meanwhile,  of  the  innumerable  multitude  that  started  with  us,  joyous 
and  full  of  hope,  where  now  is  the  innumerable  remainder,  whom  we  see 
no  longer  by  our  side  ?  The  most  have  recoiled,  and  stand  gazing  afar 
off",  in  unsympathetic  astonishment,  at  our  career  :  not  a  few,  pressing 
forward  with  more  courage,  have  missed  footing,  or  leaped  short ;  and 
now  swim  weltering  in  the  Chaos-flood,  some  towards  this  shore,  some 
towards  that.  To  these  also  a  helping  hand  should  be  held  out ;  at  least 
some  word  of  encouragement  be  said. 

Or,  to  speak  without  metaphor,  with  which  mode  of  utterance 
Teufelsdrdckh  unhappily  has  somewhat  infected  us, — can  it  be  hidden 
from  the  Editor  that  many  a  British  Reader  sits  reading  quite  bewildered 
in  head,  and  afflicted  rather  than  instructed  by  the  present  Work  ?  Yes, 
long  ago  has  many  a  British  Reader  been,  as  now,  demanding  with  some- 
thing like  a  snarl :  Whereto  does  all  this  lead ;  or  what  use  is  in  it  ? 

In  the  way  of  replenishing  thy  purse,  or  otherwise  aiding  thy  digestive 
faculty,  0  British  reader,  it  leads  to  nothing,  and  there  is  no  use  in  it ; 
but  rather  the  reverse,  for  it  costs  thee  somewhat.  Nevertheless,  if 
through  this  unpromising  Horn-gate,  Teufelsdr^kh,  and  we  by  means  of 
him,  have  led  thee  into  the  true  Land  of  Dreams ;  and  through  the 
Clothes-Screen,  as  through  a  magical  Pierre-Pertuis,  thou  lookest,  even 
for  moments,  into  the  region  of  the  Wonderful,  and  seest  and  feelest  that  thy 
daily  life  is  girt  with  Wonder,  and  based  on  Wonder,  and  thy  very  blan- 
kets and  breeches  are  Miracles, — then  art  thou  profited  beyond  money's 
worth,  and  hast  a  thankfulness  towards  our  Professor  ;  nay,  perhaps  in 
many  a  literary  Tea-circle,  wilt  open  thy  kind  lips,  and  audibly  express 
that  same. 

Nay,  farther ;  art  not  thou  too  perhaps  by  this  time  made  aware  that  all 
Symbols  are  properly  Clothes  ;  that  all  Forms  whereby  Spirit  manifests 
itself  to  Sense,  whether  outwardly  or  in  the  imagination,  are  Clothes ; 
and  thus  not  only  the  parchment  Magna  Charta,  which  a  Tailor  was 
nigh  cutting  into  measures,  but  the  Pomp  and  Authority  of  Law,  the 
sacredness  of  Majesty,  and  all  inferior  Worships  (Worth-ships)  are 
properly  a  Vesture  and  Raiment ;  and  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  them- 
selves are  articles  of  wearing  apparel  (for  the  Religious  Idea)  ?  In 
which  case,  must  it  not  also  be  admitted  that  this  Science  of  Clothes  is  a 
high  one,  and  may  with  infinitely  deeper  study  on  thy  part  yield  richer 
fruit :  that  it  takes  scientific  rank  beside  Codification,  and  Political  Eco- 
nomy, and  the  Theory  of  the  British  Constitution  ;  nay,  rather,  from  its 
prophetic  height  looks  down  on  all  these,  as  on  so  many  weaving-shops 


THE    DANDIACAL  BODY. 


110 


and  spinning-mills,  where  the  Vestures  which  it  has  to  fashion,  and  con- 
secrate, and  distribute,  are,  too  often  by  haggard  hungry  operatives  who 
see  no  farther  than  their  no3e,  mechanically  woven  and  spun  ? 

But  omitting  all  this,  much  more  all  that  concerns  Natural  Superna- 
turalism,  and  indeed  whatever  has  reference  to  the  Ulterior  or  Transcen- 
dental Portion  of  the  Science,  or  bears  never  so  remotely  on  that  promised 
Volume  of  the  Palingenesie  der  menschlichen  Gesellschaft  (Newbirth  of 
Society), — we  humbly  suggest  that  no  province  of  Clothes-Philosophy, 
even  the  lowest,  is  without  its  direct  value,  but  that  innumerable 
inferences  of  a  practical  nature  may  be  drawn  therefrom.  To  say 
nothing  of  those  pregnant  considerations,  ethical,  political,  symbolical, 
which  crowd  on  the  Clothes-Philosopher  from  the  very  threshold  of  his 
Science  :  nothing  even  of  those  "  architectural  ideas"  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  lurk  at  the  bottom  of  all  Modes,  and  will  one  day,  better  unfolding 
themselves,  lead  to  important  revolutions, — let  us  glance  for  a  moment, 
and  with  the  faintest  light  of  Clothes-Philosophy,  on  what  may  be  called 
the  Habilatory  Class  of  our  fellow-men.  Here  too  overlooking,  where  so 
much  were  to  be  looked  on,  the  million  spinners,  weavers,  fullers,  dyers, 
washers,  and  wringers,  that  puddle  and  muddle  in  their  dark  recesses,  to 
make  us  Clothes,  and  die  that  we  may  live, — let  us  but  turn  the  reader's 
attention  upon  two  small  divisions  of  mankind,  who,  like  moths,  may  be 
regarded  as  Cloth- animals,  creatures  that  live,  move  and  have  their  being 
in  Cloth :  we  mean,  Dandies  and  Tailors. 

In  regard  to  both  which  small  divisions  it  may  be  asserted,  without 
scruple,  that  the  public  feeling,  unenlightened  by  Philosophy,  is  at  fault ; 
and  even  that  the  dictates  of  humanity  are  violated.  As  will  perhaps 
abundantly  appear  to  readers  of  the  two  following  Chapters. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  DANDIACAL  BODY. 

First,  touching  Dandies,  let  us  consider  with  some  scientific  strictness, 
what  a  Dandy  specially  is.  A  Dandy  is  a  Clothes-wearing  Man,  a  Man 
whose  trade,  office,  and  existence  consists  in  the  wearing  of  Clothes. 
Every  faculty  of  his  soul,  spirit,  purse,  and  person  is  heroically  conse- 
crated to  this  one  object,  the  wearing  of  Clothes  wisely  and  well :  so  that 
as  others  dress  to  live,  he  lives  to  dress.  The  all-importance  of  Clothes, 
which  a  German  Professor,  of  unequalled  learning  and  acumen,  writes 
his  enormous  Volume  to  demonstrate,  has  sprung  up  in  the  intellect  of  the 
Dandy,  without  effort,  like  an  instinct  of  genius;  he  is  inspired  witl< 
Cloth,  a  Poet  of  Cloth.  What  Teufelsdrdckh  would  call  a  "  Divine  Idea 
of  Cloth"  is  born  with  him ;  and  this,  like  other  such  Ideas,  will  express 
itself  outwardly,  or  wring  his  heart  asunder  with  unutterable  throes. 

But,  like  a  generous,  creative  enthusiast,  he  fearlessly  makes  his  Idea 
an  Action  ;  shows  himself,  in  peculiar  guise,  to  mankind  ;  walks  forth,  a 
witness  and  living  Martyr  to  the  eternal  Worth  of  Clothes.  We  called 
him  a  Poet :  is  not  his  body  the  (stuffed)  parchment-skin  whereon  he 
writes,  with  cunning  Huddersfield  dyes,  a  Sonnet  to  his  mistress'  eye- 
brow ?  Say,  rather,  an  Epos,  and  Cloiha  Virumque  cano,  to  the  whole 
world,  in  Macaronic  verses,  which  he  that  runs  may  read.  Nay,  if  you 
grant,  what  seems  to  be  admissible,  that  the  Dandy  has  a  Thinking-prin- 
ciple in  him,  and  some  notions  of  Time  and  Space,  is  there  not  in  this 
Life-devotedness  to  Cloth,  in  this  so  willing  sacrifice  of  the  Immortal  to 
the  Perishable,  something  (though  in  reverse  order)  of  that  blending  and 


120 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


identification  of  Eternity  with  Time,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  constitutes 
the  Prophetic  Character  ? 

And  now,  for  all  this  perennial  Martyrdom,  and  Poesy,  and  even  Pro- 
phesy, what  is  it  that  the  Dandy  asks  in  return  ?  Solely,  we  may  say, 
that  you  would  recognize  his  existence  ;  would  admit  him  to  be  a  living 
object ;  or  even  failing  this,  a  visual  object,  or  thing  that  will  reflect  rays 
of  light.  Your  silver  or  your  gold  (beyond  what  the  niggardly  Law  has 
already  secured  him)  he  solicits  not ;  simply  the  glance  of  your  eyes. 
Understand  his  mystic  significance,  or  altogether  miss  and  misinterpret 
it :  do  but  look  at  him,  and  he  is  contented.  May  we  not  well  cry  shame 
on  an  ungrateful  world,  that  refuses  even  this  poor  boon  ;  that  will  waste 
its  optic  faculty  on  dried  Crocodiles,  and  Siamese  Twins  ;  and  over  the 
domestic  wonderful  wonder  of  wonders,  a  live  Dandy,  glance  with  hasly 
indifference,  and  a  scarcely  concealed  contempt!  Him  no  Zoologist 
classes  amon?  the  Mammalia,  no  Anatomist  dissects  with  care :  when  did 
we  see  any  injected  Preparation  of  the  Dandy,  in  our  Museums  ;  any 
specimen  of  him  preserved  in  spirits  ?  Lord  Herringbone  may  dress  him- 
self in  a  snuff-brown  suit,  with  snufF-brown  shirt  and  shoes :  it  skills  not ; 
the  undiscerning  public,  occupied  with  grosser  wants,  passes  by  regard- 
less on  the  other  side. 

The  age  of  Curiosity,  like  that  of  Chivalry,  is  indeed,  properly  speak- 
ing, gone.  Yet  perhaps  only  gone  to  sleep  :  for  here  arises  the  Clothes- 
Philosophy  to  resuscitate,  strangely  enough,  both  the  one  and  the  other  ! 
Should  sound  views  of  this  Science  come  to  prevail,  the  essential  nature 
of  the  British  Dandy,  and  the  mystic  significance  that  lies  in  him,  cannot 
always  remain  hidden  under  laughable  and  lamentable  hallucination. 
The  following  long  Extract  from  Professor  Teufelsdrockh  may  set  the 
matter,  if  not  in  its  true  light,  yet  in  the  way  towards  such.  It  is  to  be 
regretted,  however,  that  here,  as  so  often  elsewhere,  the  Professor's  keen 
philosophic  perspicacity  is  somewhat  marred  by  a  certain  mixture  of 
almost  owlish  purblindness,  or  else  of  some  perverse,  ineffectual,  ironic 
tendency,  our  readers  shall  judge  which  : 

"  In  these  distracted  times,"  writes  he,  "  when  the  Religious  Princi- 
ple, driven  out  of  most  Churches,  either  lies  unseen  in  the  hearts  of  good 
men,  looking  and  longing  and  silently  working  there  towards  some  new 
Revelation ;  or  else  wanders  homeless  over  the  world,  like  a  disembodied 
soul  seeking  its  terrestrial  organization, — into  how  many  strange  shapes, 
of  Superstition  and  Fanaticism,  does  it  not  tentatively  and  errantly  cast 
itself!  The  higher  Enthusiasm  of  man's  nature  is  for  the  while  without 
Exponent ;  yet  must  it  continue  indestructible,  unweariedly  active,  and 
work  blindly  in  the  great  chaotic  deep  :  thus  Sect  after  Sect,  and  Church 
after  Church,  bodies  itself  forth,  and  melts  again  into  new  metamorphosis. 

"  Chiefly  is  this  observable  in  England,  which,  as  the  wealthiest  and 
worst-instructed  of  European  nations,  offers  precisely  the  elements  (of 
Heat  namely,  and  of  Darkness),  in  which  such  moon-calves  and  monstro  - 
sities are  best  generated.  Among  the  newer  Sects  of  that  country,  one 
of  the  most  notable,  and  closely  connected  with  our  present  subject,  is  that 
of  the  Dandies :  concerning  which,  what  little  information  1  have  been 
able  to  procure  may  fitly  stand  here. 

"  It  is  true,  certain  of  the  English  Journalists,  men  generally  without 
sense  for  the  Religious  Principle,  or  judgment  for  its  manifestations, 
speak,  in  their  brief,  enigmatic  notices,  as  if  this  were  perhaps  rather  a 
Secular  Sect,  and  not  a  Religious  one :  nevertheless,  to  the  psychologic 
eye  its  devotional  and  even  sacrificial  character  plainly  enough  reveals 
itself.  Whether  it  belongs  to  the  class  of  Fetish-worships,  or  of  Hero- 
worships  or  Polytheisms,  or  to  what  other  class  may  in  the  present  state 
of  our  intelligence  remain  undecided  (schweben).    A  certain  touch  of 


THE  DANDIACAL  BODY. 


121 


Manicheism,  not  indeed  in  the  Gnostic  shape,  is  discernible  enough :  also 
(for  human  Error  walks  in  a  cycle,  and  reappears  at  intervals)  a  not  in- 
considerable resemblance  to  that  Superstition  of  the  Athos  Monks,  who, 
by  fasting  from  all  nourishment,  and  looking  intensely  for  a  length  of 
time  into  their  own  navels,  came  to  discern  therein  the  true  Apocalypse 
of  Nature,  and  Heaven  Unveiled.  To  my  own  surmise,  it  appears  as  if 
this  Dandiacal  Sect  were  but  a  new  modification,  adapted  to  the  new 
time,  of  that  primeval  Superstition,  Self  Worship ;  which  Zerdusht, 
Quangfoutchee,  Mohammed,  and  others,  strove  rather  to  subordinate  and 
restrain  than  to  eradicate ;  and  which  only  in  the  purer  forms  of  Reli- 
gion has  been  altogether  rejected.  Wherefore,  if  any  one  chooses  to 
name  it  revived  Ahrimanism,  or  a  new  figure  of  Demon- Worship,  I  have, 
so  far  as  is  yet  visible,  no  objection. 

"  For  the  rest,  these  people,  animated  with  the  zeal  of  a  new  Sect,  dis- 
play courage  and  perseverance,  and  what  force  there  is  in  man's  nature 
though  never  so  enslaved.  They  affect  great  purity  and  separatism : 
distinguish  themselves  by  a  particular  costume  (whereof  some  notices 
were  given  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  Volume) ;  likewise,  so  far  as  possi- 
ble, by  a  particular  speech  (apparently  some  broken  Lingua-franca,  or 
English-French) ;  and  on  the  whole,  strive  to  maintain  a  true  Nazarene 
deportment,  and  keep  themselves  unspotted  from  the  world. 

"  They  have  their  Temples,  whereof  the  chief,  as  the  Jewish  Temple 
did,  stands  in  their  metropolis  ;  and  is  named  Mmacks,  a  word  of  uncer- 
tain etymology.  They  worship  principally  by  night;  and  have  their 
Highpriests  and  Highpriestesses,  who,  however,  do  not  continue  for  life. 
The  rites,  by  some  supposed  to  be  of  the  Menadic  sort,  or  perhaps  with 
an  Eleusinian  or  Cabiric  character,  are  held  strictly  secret.  Nor  are 
Sacred  Books  wanting  to  the  Sect ;  these  they  call  Fashionable  Novels  ; 
however,  the  Canon  is  not  completed,  and  some  are  canonical  and 
others  not. 

"  Of  such  Sacred  Books,  I,  not  without  expense,  procured  myself  some 
samples  ;  and  in  hope  of  true  insight,  and  with  the  zeal  which  beseems 
an  Inquirer  into  Clothes,  set  to  interpret  and  study  them.  But  wholly 
to  no  purpose  :  that,  tough  faculty  of  reading,  for  which  the  world  will 
not  refuse  me  credit,  was  here  for  the  first  time  foiled  and  set  at  naught. 
In  vain  that  I  summoned  my  whole  energies  (mich  weidlich  anstrengte), 
and  did  my  very  utmost :  at  the  end  of  some  short  space,  I  was  uniformly 
seized  with  not  so  much  what  I  can  call  a  drumming  in  my  ears,  as  a 
kind  of  infinite,  unsufferable  Jew's-harping  and  scrannel-piping  there  : 
to  which  the  frightfullest  species  of  Magnetic  Sleep  soon  supervened. 
And  if  I  strove  to  shake  this  away,  and  absolutely  would  not  yield,  came 
a  hitherto  unfelt  sensation,  as  of  Delirium  Tremens,  and  a  melting  into 
total  deliquium  ;  till  at  last,  by  order  of  the  Doctor,  dreading  ruin  to  my 
whole  intellectual  and  bodily  faculties,  and  a  general  breaking  up  of  the 
constitution,  I  reluctantly  but  determinedly  forbore.  Was  there  some 
miracle  at  work  here ;  like  those  Fire-balls,  and  supernal  and  infernal 
prodigies,  that,  in  the  case  of  the  Jewish  Mysteries,  have  also  more  than 
once  scared  back  the  Alien  ?  Be  this  as  it  may,  such  failure  on  my  part, 
after  best  efforts,  must  excuse  the  imperfection  of  this  sketch;  altogether 
incomplete,  yet  the  completest  I  could  give  of  a  Sect  too  singular  to  be 
omitted. 

"  Loving  my  own  life  and  senses  as  I  do,  no  power  shall  induce  me,  as 
a  private  individual,  to  open  another  Fashionable  Novel.  But  luckily,  in 
this  dilemma,  comes  a  hand  from  the  clouds ;  whereby  if  not  victory,  de- 
liverance is  held  out  to  me.  Round  one  of  those  Book-packages,  which 
the  Stillschweigm'sche  Buchhandlung  is  in  the  habit  of  importing  from 
England,  come,  as  is  usual,  various  waste  print ed-sheets  (macalatur- 
11 


122 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


blatter),  by  way  of  interior  wrappage ;  into  these  the  Clothes-Philoso- 
pher, with  a  certain  Mohammedan  reverence  even  for  waste  paper,  where 
curious  knowledge  will  sometimes  hover,  disdains  not  to  cast  his  eye. 
Readers  may  judge  of  his  astonishment  when  on  such  a  defaced  stray 
sheet,  probably  the  outcast  fraction  of  some  English  Periodical,  such  as 
they  name  Magazine,  appears  something  like  a  Dissertation  on  this  very 
subject  of  Fashionable  Novels  !  It  sets  out,  indeed,  chiefly  from  the  Secu- 
lar point  of  view;  directing  itself,  not  without  asperity,  against  some  to 
me  unknown  individual,  named  Pelham,  who  seems  to  be  a  mystagogue, 
and  leading  Teacher  and  Preacher  of  the  Sect ;  so  that,  what  indeed 
otherwise  was  not  to  be  expected  in  such  a  fugitive  fragmentary  sheet,  the 
true  secret,  the  religious  Physiognomy  and  physiology  of  the  Dandiacal 
Body,  is  nowise  laid  fully  open  there.  Nevertheless,  scattered  lights  do 
from  time  to  time  sparkle  out,  whereby  I  have  endeavored  to  profit.  Nay, 
in  one  passage  selected  from  the  Prophecies,  or  Mythic  Theogonies,  or 
whatever  they  are  (for  the  style  seems  very  mixed)  of  this  Mystagogue, 
I  find  what  appears  to  be  a  Confession  of  Faith,  or  Whole  Duty  of  Man, 
according  to  the  tenets  of  that  Sect.  Which  Confession,  or  whole  Duty, 
therefore,  as  proceeding  from  a  source  so  authentic,  I  shall  here  arrange 
under  Seven  distinct  Articles,  and  in  very  abridged  shape,  lay  before  the 
German  world ;  therewith  taking  leave  of  this  matter.  Observe,  also, 
that  to  avoid  possibility  of  error,  I  quote  literally  from  the  Original : 

et  ARTICLES  OF  FAITH. 

<  1.  Coats  should  have  nothing  of  the  triangle  about  them ;  at  the 
same  time,  wrinkles  behind  should  be  carefully  avoided. 

'  2.  The  collar  is  a  very  important  point :  it  should  be  low  behind 
and  slightly  rolled. 

6  3.  No  licence  of  fashion  can  allow  a  man  of  delicate  taste  to  adopt 
the  posterial  luxuriance  of  a  Hottentot. 

(  4.  There  is  safety  in  a  swallow-tail. 

<  5.  The  good  sense  of  a  gentleman  is  nowhere  more  finely  developed 
than  in  his  rings. 

*  6.  It  is  permitted  to  mankind,  under  certain  restrictions,  to  wear 
white  waistcoats. 

4  7.  The  trowsers  must  be  exceedingly  tight  across  the  hips.' 

"  All  which  Propositions  I,  for  the  present,  content  myself  with 
modestly  but  peremptorily  and  irrevocably  denying. 

"  In  strange  contrast  with  this  Dandiacal  Body  stands  another  British 
Sect,  originally,  as  I  understand,  of  Ireland,  where  its  chief  seat  still  is ; 
but  known  also  in  the  main  Island,  and  indeed  everywhere  rapidly 
spreading.  As  this  Sect  has  hitherto  emitted  no  Canonical  Books,  it 
remains  to  me  in  the  same  state  of  obscurity  as  the  Dandiacal,  which  has 
published  Books  that  the  unassisted  human  faculties  are  inadequate  to 
read.  The  members  appear  to  be  designated  by  a  considerable  diversity 
of  names,  according  to  their  various  places  of  establishment :  in  England 
they  are  generally  called  the  Drudge  Sect ;  also,  un philosophically 
enough,  the  White  Negroes ;  and,  chiefly  in  scorn  by  those  of  other  com- 
munions, the  Ragged-Beggar  Sect.  In  Scotland,  again,  I  find  them 
entitled  Hallanshakers,  or  the  Stook-of-Duds  Sect ;  any  individual  com- 
municant is  named  Stook-of-Duds  (that  is,  Shock  of  Rags),  in  allusion, 
doubtless,  to  their  professional  Costume.  While  in  Ireland,  which, 
as  mentioned,  is  their  grand  parent  hive,  they  go  by  a  perplexing 
multiplicity  of  designations,  such  as  Bogtrotters,  Redshanks,  Ribbonmen, 
Cottiers,  Peep-of-Day  Boys,  Babes  of  the  Wood,  Rockites,  Poor-Slaves ; 
which  last,  however,  seems  to  be  the  primary  and  generic  name  ; 
whereto,  probably  enough,  the  others  are  only  subsidiary  species,  or 


THE    DANDIACAL  BODY. 


slight  varieties  ;  or,  at  most,  propagated  offsets  from  the  parent  stem, 
whose  minute  subdivisions,  and  shades  of  difference,  it  were  here  loss  of 
time  to  dwell  on.  Enough  for  us  to  understand,  what  seems  indubitable, 
that  the  original  Sect  is  that  of  the  Poor-Slaves ;  whose  doctrines, 
practices,  and  fundamental  characteristics,  pervade  and  animate  the 
whole  Body,  howsoever  denominated  or  outwardly  diversified. 

"  The  precise  speculative  tenets  of  this  Brotherhood  :  how  the 
Universe,  and  Man,  and  Man's  Life,  picture  themselves  to  the  mind  of 
an  Irish  Poor-Slave ;  with  what  feelings  and  opinions  he  looks  forward 
on  the  Future,  round  on  the  Present,  back  on  the  Past,  it  were  extremely 
difficult  to  specify.  Something  Monastic  there  appears  to  be  in  their 
Constitution  :  we  find  them  bound  by  the  two  Monastic  Vows,  of  Poverty 
and  Obedience ;  which  Vows,  especially  the  former,  it  is  said,  they 
observe  with  great  strictness  ;  nay,  as  I  have  understood  it,  they  are 
pledged,  and  be  it  by  any  solemn  Nazarene  ordination  or  not,  irrevoeably 
enough  consecrated  thereto,  even  before  birth.  That  the  third  Vow,  of 
Chastity,  is  rigidly  enforced  among  them,  I  find  no  ground  to  conjecture. 

"Furthermore,  they  appear  to  imitate  the  Dandiacal  Sect  in  their 
grand  principle  of  wearing  a  peculiar  Costume.  Of  which  Irish  Poor- 
Slave  Costume  no  description  will  indeed  be  found  in  the  present  Volume ; 
for  this  reason,  that  by  the  imperfect  organ  of  Language  it  did  not  seem 
describable.  Their  raiment  consists  of  innumerable  skirts,  lappets,  and 
irregular  wings,  of  all  cloths  and  of  all  colours  ;  through  the  labyrinthic 
intricacies  of  which  their  bodies  are  introduced  by  some  unknown  process. 
It  is  fastened  together  by  a  multiplex  combinations  of  buttons,  thrums, 
and  skewers ;  to  which  frequently  is  added  a  girdle  of  leather,  of  hempen 
or  even  of  straw  rope,  round  the  loins.  To  straw  rope,  indeed,  they  seem 
partial,  and  often  wear  it  by  way  of  sandals.  In  head-dress  they  affect  a 
certain  freedom  :  hats  with  partial  brim,  without  crown,  or  with  only  a 
loose,  hinged,  or  valve  crown ;  in  the  former  case,  they  sometimes  invert 
the  hat,  and  wear  it  brim  uppermost,  like  a  University-cap,  with  what 
view  is  unknown. 

"  The  name,  Poor-Slaves,  seems  to  indicate  a  Slavonic,  Polish,  or 
Russian  origin  :  not  so,  however,  the  interior  essence  and  spirit  of  their 
Superstition,  which  rather  displays  a  Teutonic  or  Druidical  character. 
One  might  fancy  them  worshippers  of  Hertha,  or  the  Earth  :  for  they  dig 
and  affectionately  work  continually  in  her  bosom ;  or  else,  shut  up  in 
private  Oratories,  meditate  and  manipulate  the  substances  derived  from 
her  ;  seldom  looking  up  towards  the  Heavenly  Luminaries,  and  then  with 
comparative  indifference.  Like  the  Druids,  on  the  other  hand,  they  live 
in  dark  dwellings  ;  often  even  breaking  their  glass-windows,  where  they 
find  such,  and  stuffing  them  up  with  pieces  of  raiment,  or  other  opaque, 
substances,  till  the  fit  obscurity  is  restored.  Again,  like  all  followers  of 
Nature-Worship,  they  are  liable  to  out-breakings  of  an  enthusiasm- 
rising  to  ferocity ;  and  burn  men,  if  not  in  wicker  idols,  yet  in  sod  cottages. 

"In  respect  of  diet,  they  have  also  their  observances.  All  Poor-Slaves 
are  Rhizophagous  (or  Root-eaters)  ;  a  few  are  Ichthyophagous,  and  use 
Salted  Herrings :  other  animal  food  they  abstain  from ;  except  indeed, 
with  perhaps  some  strange  inverted  fragment  of  a  Brahminical  feeling, 
such  animals  as  die  a  natural  death.  Their  universal  sustenance  is  the 
root  named  Potato,  cooked  by  fire  alone  ;  and  generally  without  condi- 
ment or  relish  of  any  kind,  save  an  unknown  condiment  named  Pointy 
into  the  meaning  of  which  I  have  vainly  inquired ;  the  victual  Potatoes- 
and-Point  not  appearing,  at  least  not  with  specified  accuracy  of  descrip- 
tion, in  any  European  Cookery-Book  whatever.  For  drink  they  use 
with  an  almost  epigrammatic  counterpoise  of  taste,  Milk,  which  is  the 
mildest  of  liquors,  and  Potheen  which  is  the  fiercest.    This  latter  I  have 


124 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


tasted,  a  well  as  the  English  Blue-Ruin,  and  the  Scotch  Whisky, 
analogous  fluids  used  by  the  Sect  in  those  countries  :  it  evidently  contains 
some  form  of  alcohol,  in  the  highest  state  of  concentration,  though 
disguised  with  acrid  oils  ;  and  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  pungent 
substance  known  to  me, — indeed,  a  perfect  liquid  fire.  In  all  thek 
Religious  Solemnities,  Potheen  is  said  to  be  an  indispensable  requisite, 
and  largely  consumed. 

"  An  Irish  Traveller,  of  perhaps  common  veracity,  who  presents  him- 
self under  the  to  me  unmeaning  title  of  The  late  John  Bernard,  offers  the 
following  sketch  of  a  domestic  establishment,  the  inmates  whereof,  though 
such  is  not  stated  expressly,  appear  to  have  been  of  that  Faith.  Thereby 
shall  my  German  readers  now  behold  an  Irish  Poor-Slave,  as  it  were  with 
their  own  eyes  ;  and  even  see  him  at  meat.  Moreover,  in  the  so  precious 
waste-paper  sheet,  above  mentioned,  I  have  found  some  corresponding 
picture  of  a  Dandiacal  Household,  painted  by  that  same  Dandiacal  Mysta- 
gogue,  or  Theogonist :  this,  also,  by  way  of  counterpart  and  contrast,  the 
world  shall  look  into. 

"  First,  therefore,  of  the  Poor-Slave,  who  appears  likewise  to  have 
been  a  species  of  Innkeeper.  I  quote  from  the  original :  '  The  furniture 
of  this  Caravansera  consisted  of  a  large  iron  Pot,  two  oaken  Tables,  two 
Benches,  two  Chairs,  and  a  Potheen  Noggin.  There  was  a  Loft  above 
(attainable  by  a  ladder),  upon  which  the  inmates  slept ;  and  the  space 
below  was  divided  by  a  hurdle  into  two  Apartments ;  the  one  for  their 
cow  and  pig,  the  other  for  themselves  and  guests.  On  entering  the  house 
we  discovered  the  family,  eleven  in  number,  at  dinner  :  the  father  sitting 
at  the  top,  the  mother  at  bottom,  the  children  on  each  side  of  a  large 
oaken  Board  which  was  scooped  out  in  the  middle,  like  a  Trough,  to 
receive  the  contents  of  their  Pot  of  Potatoes.  Little  holes  were  cut  at 
equal  distances  to  contain  Salt ;  and  a  bowl  of  Milk  stood  on  the  table : 
all  the  luxuries  of  meat  and  beer,  bread,  knives,  and  dishes  were  dis- 
pensed with.'  The  Poor-Slave  himself  our  Traveller  found,  as  he  says, 
broad-backed,  black -browed,  of  great  personal  strength,  and  mouth  from 
ear  to  ear.  His  Wife  was  a  sun-browned  but  well-featured  woman ;  and 
his  young  ones,  bare  and  chubby,  had  the  appetite  of  ravens.  Of  their 
Philosophical,  or  Religious  tenets  or  observances,  no  notice  or  hint. 

"  But  now,  secondly,  of  the  Dandiacal  Household ;  in  which,  truly, 
that  often-mentioned  Mystagogue  and  inspired  Penman  himself  has  his 
abode  :  6  A  Dressing-room  splendidly  furnished ;  violet-colored  curtains, 
chairs  and  ottomans  of  the  same  hue.  Two  full-length  Mirrors  are 
placed,  one  on  each  side  of  a  table,  which  supports  the  luxuries  of  the 
Toilet.  Several  Bottles  of  Perfumes,  arranged  in  a  peculiar  fashion, 
stand  upon  a  smaller  table  of  mother-of-pearl :  opposite  to  these  are 
placed  the  appurtenances  of  Lavation  rich  wrought  in  frosted  silver.  A 
Wardrobe  of  Buhl  is  on  the  left ;  the  doors  of  which  being  partly  open 
discover  a  profusion  of  Clothes  ;  Shoes  of  a  singularly  small  size  monopo- 
lise the  lower  shelves.  Fronting  the  wardrobe  a  door  ajar  gives  some 
slight  glimpse  of  a  Bath-room.  Folding-doors  in  the  back-ground. — 
Enter  the  Author,'  our  Theogonist  in  person,  «  obsequiously  preceded  by 
a  French  Valet,  in  white  silk  Jacket  and  cambric  Apron.' 

"  Such  are  the  two  Sects,  which,  at  this  moment,  divide  the  more  un- 
settled portion  of  the  British  People  ;  and  agitate  that  ever-vexed  country. 
To  the  eye  of  the  political  Seer,  their  mutual  relation,  pregnant  with  the 
elements  of  discord  and  hostility,  is  far  from  consoling.  These  two  prin- 
ciples of  Dandiacal  Self- worship  or  Demon- worship,  and  Poor-Slavish  or 
Drudgical  Earth-worship,  or  whatever  that  same  Drudgism  may  be,  do  as 
yet  indeed  manifest  themselves  under  distant  and  nowise  considerable 
shapes  :  nevertheless,  in  their  roots  and  subterranean  ramifications*  they 


THE  DANDIACAL  BODY. 


125 


extend  through  the  entire  structure  of  Society,  and  work  unweariedly  in 
the  secret  depths  of  English  national  Existence;  striving  to  separate  and 
isolate  it  into  two  contradictory,  uncommunicating  masses. 

"  In  numbers,  and  even  individual  strength,  the  Poor-Slaves  or  Drudges, 
it  would  seem,  are  hourly  increasing.  The  Dandiacal,  again,  is  by 
nature  no  proselytising  Sect ;  but  it  boasts  of  great  hereditary  resources, 
and  is  strong  by  union  :  whereas  the  Drudges,  split  into  parties,  have  as 
yet  no  rallying-point ;  or  at  best,  only  co-operate  by  means  of  partial 
secret  affiliations.  If,  indeed,  there  were  to  arise  a  Communion  of 
Drudges,  as  there  is  already  a  Communion  of  Saints,  what  strangest 
effects  would  follow  therefrom  !  Dandyism  as  yet  affects  to  look  down 
on  Drudgism :  but  perhaps  the  hour  of  trial,  when  it  will  be  practically 
seen  which  ought  to  look  down,  and  which  up,  is  not  so  distant. 

"  To  me  it  seems  probable  that  the  two  Sects  will  one  day  part  Eng- 
land between  them  ;  each  recruiting  itself  from  the  intermediate  ranks, 
till  there  be  none  left  to  enlist  on  either  side.  Those  Dandiacal  Mani- 
cheans,  with  the  host  of  Dandyising  Christian?,  will  form  one  body  :  the 
Drudges  gathering  round  them  whosoever  is  Drudgical,  be  he  Christian 
or  Infidel  Pagan  ;  sweeping  up  likewise  all  manner  of  Utilitarians,  Radi- 
cals, refractory  Potwallopers,  and  so  forth,  into  their  general  mass,  will 
form  another.  I  could  liken  Dandyism  and  Drudgism  to  two  bottomless 
boiling  Whirlpools  that  had  broken  out  on  opposite  quarters  of  the  firm 
land  :  as  yet  they  appear  only  disquieted,  foolishly  bubbling  wells,  which 
man's  art  might  cover  in;  yet  mark  them,  their  diameter  is  daily  widen- 
ing ;  they  are  hollow  Cones  that  boil  up  from  the  infinite  Deep,  over 
which  your  firm  land  is  but  a  thin  crust  or  rind !  Thus  daily  is  the 
intermediate  land  crumbling  in,  daily  the  empire  of  the  two  Buchan- 
Bullers  extending ;  till  now  there  is  but  a  foot-plank,  a  mere  film  of  Land 
between  them  ;  this  too  is  washed  away ;  and  then — we  have  the  true 
Hell  of  Waters,  and  Noah's  Deluge  is  outdeluged  ! 

"  Or  better,  I  might  call  them  two  boundless,  and  indeed  unexampled 
Electric  Machines  (turned  by  the  e  Machinery  of  Society'),  with  batteries 
of  opposite  quality ;  Drudgism  the  Negative,  Dandyism  the  Positive  :  one 
attracts  hourly  towards  it  and  appropriates  all  the  Positive  Electricity  of 
the  Nation  (namely,  the  Money  thereof) ;  the  other  is  equally  busy  with 
the  Negative  (that  is  to  say  the  Hunger),  which  is  equally  potent. 
Hitherto  you  see  only  partial  transient  sparkles  and  sputters  :  but  wait  a 
little,  till  the  entire  nation  is  in  an  electric  state ;  till  your  whole  vital 
Electricity,  no  longer  healthfully  Neutral,  is  cut  into  two  isolated  por- 
tions of  Positive  and  Negative  (of  Money  and  of  Hunger)  ;  and  stands  there 
bottled  up  in  two  World  Batteries  !  The  stirring  of  a  child's  finger  brings 
the  two  together ;  and  then — What  then  ?  The  Earth  is  but  shivered 
into  impalpable  smoke  by  that  Doom's-thunderpeal ;  the  Sun  misses  one 
of  his  Planets  in  Space,  and  thenceforth  there  are  no  eclipses  of  the 
Moon. — Or  better  still,  I  might  liken"  

Oh  !  enough,  enough  of  likenings  and  similitudes ;  in  excess  of  which, 
truly,  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  Teufelsdrockh  or  ourselves  sin  the  more. 

We  have  often  blamed  him  for  a  habit  of  wire-drawing  and  over-refin- 
ing ;  from  of  old  we  have  been  familiar  with  his  tendency  to  Mysticism 
and  Religiosity,  whereby  in  everything  he  was  still  scenting  out  Religion ; 
but  never  perhaps  did  these  amaurosis  suffusions  so  cloud  and  distort  his 
otherwise  most  piercing  vision,  as  in  this  of  the  Dandiacal  Body  !  Or 
was  there  something  of  intended  satire ;  is  the  Professor  and  Seer  not. 
quite  the  blinkard  he  affects  to  be  ?  Of  an  ordinary  mortal  we  should 
have  decisively  answered  in  the  affirmative  ;  but  with  a  Teufelsdrockh 
there  ever  hovers  some  shade  of  doubt.  In  the  meanwhile  if  satire  were 
actually  intended,  the  case  is  little  better.    There  are  not  wanting  men 


12G 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


who  will  answer  :  Does  your  Professor  take  us  for  simpletons  ?  His 
irony  has  overshot  itself;  we  see  through  it,  and  perhaps  through  him. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TAILORS. 

Thus,  however,  has  our  first  Practical  Inference  from  the  Clothes- 
Philosophy,  that  which  respects  Dandies,  been  sufficiently  drawn ;  and 
we  come  now  to  the  second,  concerning  Tailors.  On  this  latter  our 
opinion  happily  quite  coincides  with  that  of  Teufelsdrockh  himself  as 
expressed  in  the  concluding  page  of  his  Volume;  to  whom  therefore  we 
willingly  give  place.  Let  him  speak  his  own  last  words,  in  his  own  way : 
"Upwards  of  a  century,"  says  he,  "must  elapse,  and  still  the  bleeding 
fight  of  Freedom  be  fought,  whoso  is  noblest  perishing  in  the  van,  and 
thrones  be  hurled  on  altars  like  Pelion  on  Ossa,  and  the  Moloch  of  Ini- 
quity have  his  victims,  and  the  Michael  of  Justice  his  martyrs,  before 
Tailors  can  be  admitted  to  their  true  prerogatives  of  manhood,  and  this 
last  wound  of  suffering  Humanity  be  closed. 

"  If  aught  in  the  history  of  the  world's  blindness  could  surprise  us, 
here  might  we  indeed  pause  and  wonder.  An  idea  has  gone  abroad,  and 
fixed  itself  down  into  a  wide-spreading  rooted  error,  that  Tailors  are  a 
distinct  s-pecies  in  Physiology,  not  Men,  but  fractional  Parts  of  a  Man. 
Call  any  one  a  Schneider  (Cutter,  Tailor),  is  it  not,  in  our  dislocated, 
hood-winked,  and  indeed  delirious  condition  of  Society,  equivalent  to  de- 
fying his  perpetual  fellest  enmity  ?  The  epithet  Schneidermdssig  (Tailor- 
like) betokens  an  otherwise  unapproachable  degree  of  pusillanimity  :  we 
introduce  a  Tailor's  Melancholy,  more  opprobrious  than  any  Leprosy,  into 
our  Books  of  Medicine  ;  and  fable  I  know  not  what  of  his  generating  it 
by  living  on  Cabbage.  Why  should  I  speak  of  Hans  Sachs  (himself  a 
Shoemaker,  or  kind  of  Leather-Tailor),  with  his  Schneider  mit  dem 
Panier  ?  Why  of  Shakspeare,  in  his  Taming  of  the  Shrew,  and  else- 
where ?  Does  it  not  stand  on  record  that  the  English  Queen  Elizabeth, 
receiving  a  deputation  of  Eighteen  Tailors,  addressed  them  with  a  '  Good 
morning,  gentlemen  both !'  Did  not  the  same  virago  boast  that  she  had 
a  Cavalry  Regiment,  whereof  neither  horse  nor  man  could  be  injured : 
her  Regiment,  namely,  of  Tailors  on  Mares  ?  Thus  everywhere  is  the 
falsehood  taken  for  granted,  and  acted  on  as  an  indisputable  fact. 

"  Nevertheless,  need  I  put  the  question  to  any  Physiologist,  Whether  it 
is  disputable  or  not  ?  Seems  it  not  at  least  presumable,  that,  under  his 
Clothes,  the  Tailor  has  bones,  and  viscera,  and  other  muscles  than  the 
sartorius  ?  Which  function  of  manhood  is  the  Tailor  not  conjectured  to 
perform  ?  Can  he  not  arrest  for  Debt  ?  Is  he  not  in  most  countries  a 
tax-paying  animal  ? 

"  To  no  reader  of  this  Volume  can  it  be  doubtful  which  conviction  is 
mine.  Nay,  if  the  fruit  of  these  long  vigils,  and  almost  preternatural  In- 
quiries is  not  to  perish  utterly,  the  world  will  have  approximated  towards 
a  higher  Truth ;  and  the  doctrine,  which  Swift,  with  the  keen  forecast  of 
genius,  dimly  anticipated,  will  stand  revealed  in  clear  light :  that  the 
Tailor  is  not  only  a  Man,  but  something  of  a  Creator  or  Divinity.  Of 
Franklin  it  was  said  that '  he  snatched  the  Thunder  from  Heaven  and  the 
Sceptre  from  Kings but  which  is  greater,  I  would  ask,  he  that  lends,  or 
he  that  snatches  ?  For,  looking  away  from  individual  cases,  and  how  a 
Man  is  by  the  Tailor  new  created  into  a  Nobleman,  and  clothed  not  only 
with  Wool  but  with  Dignity  and  a  Mystic  Dominion, — is  not  the  fair 
fabric  of  Society  itself,  with  all  its  royal  mantles  and  pontifical  sJoles, 


FAREWELL. 


127 


whereby,  from  nakedness  and  dismemberment,  we  are  organized  into 
Polities,  into  Nations,  and  a  whole  co-operating  Mankind,  the  creation, 
as  has  here  been  often  irrefragably  evinced,  of  the  Tailor  alone  ? — What 
too  are  all  Poets,  and  moral  Teachers,  but  a  species  of  Metaphorical 
Tailors  ?  Touching  which  high  Guild  the  greatest  living  Guild-Brother 
has  triumphantly  asked  us  :  <  Nay,  if  thou  wilt  have  it,  who  but  the  Poet 
first  made  Gods  for  men ;  brought  them  down  to  us ;  and  raised  us  up  to 
them  V 

"  And  this  is  he,  whom  sitting  downcast,  on  the  hard  basis  of  his  Shop- 
board,  the  world  treats  with  contumely,  as  the  ninth  part  of  a  man ! 
Look  up,  thou  much  injured  one,  look  up  with  the  kindling  eye  of  hope, 
and  prophetic  bodings  of  a  nobler  better  time.  Too  long  hast  thou  sat 
there,  on  crossed  legs,  wearing  thy  ancle-joints  to  horn  ;  like  some  sacred 
Anchorite,  or  Catholic  Fakir,  doing  penance,  drawing  down  Heaven's 
richest  blessings,  for  a  world  that  scoffed  at  thee.  Be  of  hope  !  Already 
streaks  of  blue  peer  through  our  clouds  ;  the  thick  gloom  of  Ignorance  is 
rolling  asunder,  and  it  will  be  day.  Mankind  will  repay  with  interest 
their  long-accumulated  debt ;  the  Anchorite  that  was  scoffed  at  will  be 
worshipped ;  the  Fraction  will  become  not  an  Integer  only,  but  a  Square 
and  Cube.  With  astonishment  the  world  will  recognize  that  the  Tailor 
is  its  Hierophant,  and  Hierarch,  or  even  its  God. 

"  As  I  stood  in  the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia,  and  looked  upon  these  Four- 
and-Twenty  Tailors,  sewing  and  embroidering  that  rich  Cloth,  which  the 
Sultan  sends  yearly  for  the  Caaba  of  Mecca,  I  thought  within  myself : 
How  many  other  Unholies  has  your  covering  Art  made  holy,  besides  this 
Arabian  Whinstone  ! 

"  Still  more  touching  was  it  when,  turning  the  corner  of  a  lane,  in  the 
Scottish  Town  of  Edinburgh,  I  came  upon  a  Signpost,  whereon  stood 
written  that  such  and  such  a  one  was  '  Breeches-Maker  to  his  Majesty 
and  stood  painted  the  Effigies  of  a  Pair  of  Leather  Breeches,  and  between 
the  knees  these  memorable  words,  Sic  itur  ad  astra.  Was  not  this  the 
martyr  prison-speech  of  a  Tailor  sighing  indeed  in  bonds,  yet  sighing 
towards  deliverance ;  and  prophetically  appealing  to  a  better  day  !  A 
day  of  justice,  when  the  worth  of  Breeches  would  be  revealed  to  man, 
and  the  Scissors  become  for  ever  venerable. 

"  Neither,  perhaps,  may  I  now  say,  has  his  appeal  been  altogether  in 
vain.  It  was  in  this  high  moment,  when  the  soul,  rent,  as  it  were,  and 
shed  asunder,  is  open  to  inspiring  influence,  that  I  first  conceived  this 
Work  on  Clothes ;  the  greatest  I  can  ever  hope  to  do  ;  which  has 
already,  after  long  retardations,  occupied,  and  will  yet  occupy,  so  large  a 
section  of  my  Life  ;  and  of  which  the  Primary  and  simpler  Portion  may 
here  find  its  conclusion." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

FAREWELL. 

So  have  we  endeavored,  from  the  enormous,  amorphous  Plumpudding, 
more  like  a  Scottish  Haggis,  which  Herr  Teufelsdrockh  had  kneaded  for 
his  fellow  mortals,  to  pick  out  the  choicest  Plums,  and  present  them 
separately  on  a  cover  of  our  own.  A  laborious,  perhaps  a  thankless 
enterprise  ;  in  which,  however,  something  of  hope  has  occasionally 
cheered  us,  and  of  which  we  can  now  wash  our  hands  not  altogether 
without  satisfaction.  If  hereby,  though  in  barbaric  wise,  some  morsel  of 
spiritual  nourishment  have  been  added  to  the  scanty  ration  of  our 
beloved  British  world,  what  nobler  recompense  could  the  Editor  desire  ? 


128 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


If  it  prove  otherwise,  why  should  he  murmur  ?  Was  not  this  a  Task 
which  Destiny,  in  any  case,  had  appointed  him ;  which  having  now  done 
with  he  sees  his  general  Day's-work  so  much  the  lighter,  so  much  the 
shorter  ? 

Of  Professor  Teufelsdrockh  it  seems  impossible  to  take  leave  without 
a  mingled  feeling  of  astonishment,  gratitude  and  disapproval.  Who  will 
not  regret  that  talents,  which  might  have  profited  in  the  higher  walks  of 
Philosophy,  or  in  Art  itself,  have  been  so  much  devoted  to  a  rummaging 
among  lumber-rooms  ;  nay,  too  often  to  a  scraping  in  kennels,  where  lost 
rings  and  diamond-necklaces  are  nowise  the  sole  conquests  ?  Regret  is 
unavoidable;  yet  censure  were  loss  of  time.  To  cure  him  of  his  mad 
humors  British  Criticism  would  essay  in  vain :  enough  for  her  if  she 
can,  by  vigilance,  prevent  the  spreading  of  such  among  ourselves.  What 
a  result,  should  this  piebald,  entangled  hyper-metaphorical  style  of 
writing  not  to  say  of  thinking,  become  general  among  our  Literary  men  ! 
As  it  might  so  easily  do.  Thus  has  not  the  Editor  himself,  working  over 
Teufelsdrockh's  German,  lost  much  of  his  own  English  purity  ?  Even 
as  the  smaller  whirlpool  is  sucked  into  the  larger,  and  made  to  whir] 
along  with  it,  so  must  the  lesser  mind,  in  this  instance,  become  portion 
of  the  greater,  and,  like  it,  see  all  things  figuratively  :  which  habit  time 
and  assiduous  effort  will  be  needed  to  eradicate. 

Nevertheless,  wayward  as  our  Professor  shows  himself,  is  there  any 
reader  that  can  part  with  him  in  declared  enmity  ?  Let  us  confess,  there 
is  that  in  the  wild,  much-suffering,  much-inflicting  man,  which  almost 
attaches  us.  His  attitude,  we  will  hope  and  believe,  is  that  of  a  man 
who  had  said  to  Cant,  Begone  ;  and  to  Dilettantism,  Here  thou  canst  not 
be  ;  and  to  Truth,  Be  thou  in  place  of  all  to  me  :  a  man  who  had  man- 
fully defied  the  "  Time-Prince,"  or  Devil,  to  his  face  ;  nay,  perhaps, 
Hannibal-like,  was  mysteriously  consecrated  from  birth  to  that  warfare, 
and  now  stood  minded  to  wage  the  same,  by  all  weapons,  in  all  places,  at 
all  times.  In  such  a  cause,  any  soldier,  were  he  but  a  Polack  Scythe- 
man,  shall  be  welcome. 

Still  the  question  returns  on  us  :  How  could  a  man  occasionally  of  keen 
insight,  not  without  keen  sense  of  propriety,  who  had  real  Thoughts  to 
communicate,  resolve  to  emit  them  in  a  shape  bordering  so  closely  on  the 
absurd  ?  Which  question  he  were  wiser  than  the  present  Editor  who 
should  satisfactorily  answer.  Our  conjecture  has  sometimes  been  that 
perhaps  Necessity  as  well  as  Choice  was  concerned  in  it.  Seems  it  not 
conceivable  that,  in  a  Life  like  our  Professor's  where  so  much  bountifully 
given  by  Nature  had  in  Practice  failed  and  misgone,  Literature  also 
would  never  rightly  prosper :  that  striving  with  his  characteristic 
vehemence  to  paint  this  and  the  other  Picture,  and  ever  without  success, 
he  at  last  desperately  dashes  his  sponge,  full  of  all  colours,  against  the 
canvass,  to  try  whether  it  will  paint  Foam  ?  With  all  his  stillness,  there 
were  perhaps  in  Teufelsdrockh  desperation  enough  for  this. 

A  second  conjecture  we  hazard  with  even  less  warranty.  It  is  that 
Teufelsdrockh  is  not  without  some  touch  of  the  universal  feeling,  a  wish 
to  proselytise.  How  often  already  have  we  paused,  uncertain  whether 
the  basis  of  this  so  enigmatic  nature  were  really  Stoicism  and  Despair,  or 
Love  and  Hope  only  seared  into  the  figure  of  these  !  Remarkable,  more- 
over, is  this  saying  of  his  :  "  How  were  Friendship  possible  ?  In  mutual 
devotedness  to  the  Good  and  True  :  otherwise  impossible ;  except  as 
Armed  Neutrality,  or  hollow  Commercial  League.  A  man,  be  the 
Heavens  ever  praised,  is  sufficient  for  himself;  yet  were  ten  men,  united 
in  Love,  capable  of  being  and  of  doing  what  ten  thousand  singly  would 
fail  in.  Infinite  is  the  help  man  can  yield  to  man."  And  now  in  con- 
junction therewith  consider  this  other  :  "  It  is  the  Night  of  the  World, 
and  still  long  till  it  be  Day:  we  wander  amid  the  glimmer  of  smoking 


THE    DANDIACAL  BODY. 


129 


ruins  and  the  San  and  the  Stars  of  Heaven  are  as  blotted  out  for  a  .season  ; 
and  two  immeasurable  Fantoms,  Hypocrisy  and  Atheism,  with  the 
Gowle,  Sensuality,  stalk  abroad  over  the  Earth,  and  call  it  theirs :  well 
at  ease  are  the  Sleepers  for  whom  Existence  is  a  shallow  Dream." 

But  what  of  the  awestruck  Wakeful  who  find  it  a  Reality  ?  Should 
not  these  unite ;  since  even  an  authentic  Spectre  is  not  visible  to  Two  ? — 
In  which  case  were  this  enormous  Clothes-Volume  properly  an  enormous 
Pitchpan,  which  our  Teufelsdrockh  in  his  lone  watchtower  had  kindled, 
that  it  might  flame  far  and  wide  through  the  Night,  and  many  a  discon- 
solately wandering  spirit  be  guided  thither  to  a  Brother's  bosom  ! — We 
say  as  before,  with  all  his  malign  indifference,  who  knows  what  mad 
Hopes  this  man  may  harbor  ? 

Meanwhile  there  is  one  fact  to  be  stated  here,  which  harmonises  ill 
with  such  conjecture ;  and,  indeed,  were  Teufelsdrockh  made  like  other 
men,  might  as  good  as  altogether  subvert  it.  Namely,  that  while  the 
Beacon-fire  blazed  its  brightest,  the  Watchman  had  quitted  it ;  that  no 
pilgrim  could  now  ask  him  :  Watchman,  what  of  the  Night  ?  Professor 
Teufelsdrockh,  be  it  known,  is  no  longer  visibly  present  at  Weissnichtwo, 
but  again  to  all  appearance  lost  in  Space  !  Some  time  ago,  the  Hofrath 
Heuschrecke  was  pleased  to  favor  us  with  another  copious  Epistle ; 
wherein  much  is  said  about  the  "  Population-Institute ;"  much  repeated 
in  praise  of  the  Paperbag  Documents,  the  hieroglyphic  nature  of  which 
our  Hofrath  still  seems  not  to  have  surmised  ;  and,  lastly,  the  strangest 
occurrence  communicated,  to  us  for  the  first  time,  in  the  following  para- 
graph : 

"  Ew.  Wohlgebohren  will  have  seen,  from  the  public  Prints,  with  what 
affectionate  and  hitherto  fruitless  solicitude  Weissnichtwo  regards  the 
disappearance  of  her  Sage.  Might  but  the  united  voice  of  Germany  pre- 
vail on  him  to  return ;  nay,  could  we  but  so  much  as  elucidate  for  our- 
selves by  what  mystery  he  went  away  !  Buty  alas,  old  Leischen  experi- 
ences or  affects  the  profoundest  deafness,  the  profoundest  ignorance  :  in 
the  Wahngasse  all  lies  swept,  silent,  sealed  up  ;  the  Privy  Council  itself 
can  hitherto  elicit  no  answer. 

"  It  had  been  remarked  that  while  the  agitating  news  of  those  Pari- 
sian Three  Days  flew  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and  dinned  every  ear  in 
Weissnichtwo,  Herr  Teufelsdrockh  was  not  known,  at  the  Game  or  else- 
where, to  have  spoken,  for  a  whole  week,  any  syllable  except  once  these 
three  :  Es  geht  an  (It  is  beginning).  Shortly  after,  as  Ew.  Wohlgebohren 
knows,  wns  the  public  tranquillity  here,  as  in  Berlin,  threatened  by  a 
Sedition  of  the  Tailors.  Nor  did  there  want  Evil-wishers,  or  perhaps 
mere  desperate  Alarmists,  who  asserted  that  the  closing  Chapter  of  the 
Clothes- Volume  was  to  blame.  In  this  appalling  crisis,  the  serenity  of 
our  Philosopher  was  indescribable :  nay,  perhaps,  through  one  humble 
individual,  something  thereof  might  pass  into  the  Rath  (Council)  itself, 
and  so  contribute  to  the  country's  deliverance.  The  Tailors  are  now 
entirely  pacificated. — To  neither  of  these  two  incidents  can  I  attribute 
our  loss  :  yet  still  comes  there  the  shadow  of  a  suspicion  out  of  Paris  and 
its  Politics.  For  example,  when  the  Saint-Simonian  Society  transmitted 
its  Propositions  hither,  and  the  whole  Ganse  was  one  vast  cackle  of 
laughter,  lamentation,  and  astonishment,  our  Sage  sat  mute;  and  at  the 
end  of  the  third  evening,  said  merely  :  *  Here  also  are  men  who  have 
discovered,  not  without  amazement,  that  Man  is  still  Man;  of  which 
high,  long-forgotten  Truth  you  already  see  them  make  a  false  applica- 
tion.' Since  then,  as  has  been  ascertained  by  examination  of  the  Post- 
Director,  there  passed  at  least  one  Letter  with  its  Answer  between  the 
Messieurs  Bazard-Enfantin  and  our  Professor  himself;  of  what  tenor  can 
now  only  be  conjectured.  On  the  fifth  night  following,  he  was  seen  for 
the  last  time ! 


130 


SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


"  Has  this  invaluable  man,  so  obnoxious  to  most  of  the  hostile  Sects 
that  convulse  our  Era,  been  spirited  away  by  certain  of  their  emissaries : 
or  did  he  go  forth  voluntarily  to  their  head-quarters  to  confer  with  them, 
and  confront  them  f  Reason  we  have,  at  least  of  a  negative  sort,  to 
believe  the  Lost  still  living  :  our  widowed  heart  also  whispers  that  ere 
long  he  will  himself  give  a  sign.  Otherwise,  indeed,  must  his  archives, 
one  day,  be  opened  by  Authority ;  where  much,  perhaps  the  Palingenesic 
itself,  is  thought  to  be  reposited." 

Thus  far  the  Hofrath ;  who  vanishes,  as  is  his  wont,  too  like  an  Ignis 
Fatuus,  leaving  the  dark  still  darker. 

So  that  Teufelsdrockh's  public  History  were  not  done  then,  or  reduced 
to  an  even,  unromantic  tenor ;  nay,  perhaps,  the  better  part  thereof  were 
only  beginning?  We  stand  in  a  region  of  conjectures,  where  substance 
has  melted  into  shadow,  and  one  cannot  be  distinguished  from  the  other. 
May  Time,  which  solves  or  suppresses  all  problems,  throw  glad  light  on 
this  also.  Our  own  private  conjecture,  now  amounting  almost  to  cer- 
tainty, is  that,  safe-moored  in  some  stillest  obscurity,  not  to  lie  always 
still,  Teufelsdrockh  is  actually  in  London  ! 

Here,  however,  can  the  present  Editor,  with  an  ambrosial  joy  as  of 
over-weariness  falling  into  sleep,  lay  down  his  pen.  Well  does  he  know, 
if  human  testimony  be  worth  aught,  that  to  innumerable  British  readers 
likewise,  this  is  a  satisfying  consummation ;  that  innumerable  British 
readers  consider  him,  during  these  current  months,  but  as  an  uneasy 
interruption  to  their  ways  of  thought  and  digestion,  not  without  a  certain 
irritancy  and  even  spoken  invective.  For  which,  as  for  other  mercies, 
ought  he  not  thank  the  Upper  Powers  ?  To  one  and  all  of  you,  0  irritat- 
ed readers,  he,  with  outstretched  arms  and  open  heart,  will  wave  a  kind 
farewell.  Thou  too,  miraculous  Entity,  that  namest  thyself  Yorke  and 
Oliver,  and  with  thy  vivacities  and  genialities,  with  thy  all- too  Irish 
mirth  and  madness,  and  odor  of  palled  punch,  makest  such  strange 
work,  farewell ;  long  as  thou  canst,  fare-weM  /  Have  we  not,  in  the 
course  of  Eternity,  travelled  some  months  of  our  Life-journey  in  partial 
sight  of  one  another ;  have  we  not  lived  together,  though  in  a  state  of 
quarrel  ? 


4 


Date  Due 


